Chapter 24
1 Again the LORD ’s anger burnt against Israel , and he moved David against them , saying, " Go , count Israel and Judah ."
2 The king said to Joab the captain of the army , who was with him , " Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel , from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people , that I may know the sum of the people ."
3 Joab said to the king , " Now may the LORD your God add to the people , however many they may be , one hundred times ; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it . But why does my lord the king delight in this thing ?"
4 Notwithstanding, the king ’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army . Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel .
5 They passed over the Jordan and encamped in Aroer , on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad , and to Jazer ;
6 then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon ,
7 and came to the stronghold of Tyre , and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites ; and they went out to the south of Judah , at Beersheba.
8 So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days .
9 Joab gave up the sum of the counting of the people to the king ; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword , and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men .
10 David ’s heart struck him after he had counted the people . David said to the LORD , " I have sinned greatly in that which I have done . But now , the LORD , put away , I beg you , the iniquity of your servant ; for I have done very foolishly ."
11 When David rose up in the morning , the LORD ’s word came to the prophet Gad , David ’s seer , saying ,
12 " Go and speak to David , ‘ The LORD says , " I offer you three things . Choose one of them , that I may do it to you ."’"
13 So Gad came to David , and told him , saying , " Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land ? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you ? Or shall there be three days ’ pestilence in your land ? Now answer , and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me ."
14 David said to Gad , " I am in distress . Let us fall now into the LORD ’s hand , for his mercies are great . Let me not fall into man ’s hand ."
15 So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time ; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.
16 When the angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it , the LORD relented of the disaster , and said to the angel who destroyed the people , " It is enough . Now withdraw your hand ." The LORD ’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite .
17 David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people , and said, " Behold , I have sinned , and I have done perversely ; but these sheep , what have they done ? Please let your hand be against me , and against my father’s house ."
18 Gad came that day to David and said to him , " Go up , build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite ."
19 David went up according to the saying of Gad , as the LORD commanded .
20 Araunah looked out , and saw the king and his servants coming on towards him . Then Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.
21 Araunah said, " Why has my lord the king come to his servant ?" David said, " To buy your threshing floor , to build an altar to the LORD , that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people ."
22 Araunah said to David , "Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him . Behold , the cattle for the burnt offering , and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood .
23 All this , O king , does Araunah give to the king ." Araunah said to the king , " May the LORD your God accept you ."
24 The king said to Araunah, " No , but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price . I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing ." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver .
25 David built an altar to the LORD there , and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings . So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel .