1Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. 2And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring the number of them to me that I may know it. 3And Joab answered, May Jehovah make His people a hundred times more than they are. But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why then does my lord desire this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel? 4Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem. 5And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah had four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword. 6But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s word was abhorrent to Joab. 7And this thing caused the eye of God to quiver; therefore He struck Israel. 8So David said to God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing; but now, I pray, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly. 9And Jehovah spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10Go and speak to David, saying, Thus says Jehovah: I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you. 11So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says Jehovah: Choose for yourself, 12either three years of famine, or three months of being defeated before your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of Jehovah; the plague in the land, with the Angel of Jehovah destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now consider what word I shall return to the One sending me. 13And David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of Jehovah, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man. 14So Jehovah sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. 15And God sent the Angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, Jehovah looked and was moved to compassion regarding the evil, and said to the Angel who was destroying, It is enough; now restrain Your hand. And the Angel of Jehovah stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16And David lifted his eyes and saw the Angel of Jehovah standing between earth and the heavens, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17And David said to God, Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O Jehovah my God, be against me and my father’s house, but not against Your people to be plagued. 18And the Angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and set up an altar unto Jehovah on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of Jehovah. 20And Ornan turned and saw the Angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan had been threshing wheat. 21And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David. And he went out from the threshing floor, and bowed to David with his face to the ground. 22And David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it unto Jehovah. You shall give it to me for the full price, that the plague may be restrained from the people. 23And Ornan said to David, Take it to yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. See, I have also given you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I have given it all. 24And King David said to Ornan, No, but I will buy to acquire it for the full price, for I will not take away what is yours for Jehovah, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. 25So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. 26And David built there an altar unto Jehovah, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon Jehovah; and He answered him from the heavens by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. 27And Jehovah commanded the Angel, and He returned His sword to its sheath. 28At that time, when David saw that Jehovah had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 29For the tabernacle of Jehovah and the altar of the burnt offering, which Moses had made in the wilderness, were at that time at the high place in Gibeon. 30But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he had been terrified of the sword of the Angel of Jehovah.