1 Chronicles 21

1 Chronicles 21:1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:2 So David said to Joab and the captains of the troops, “Go and count Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan and bring a report to me so I can know their number.”

1 Chronicles 21:3 Joab replied, “May Yahveh add to the number of his people a hundred times over! My lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s slaves? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he make Israel need reparation?”[1]

1 Chronicles 21:4 Yet the king’s order was strong over Joab. So, Joab left and traveled throughout Israel and then returned to Jerusalem.

1 Chronicles 21:5 Joab gave the total troop registration to David. In all Israel, there were one million one hundred thousand armed men, and in Judah itself, four hundred seventy thousand armed men.

1 Chronicles 21:6 He did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count because the king’s command was repulsive to Joab.

1 Chronicles 21:7 This command was also evil in God’s sight, so he struck Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:8 David said to God, “I have failed[2] greatly because I have done this thing. Now, please take away your slaves’s violation,[3] because I’ve been very foolish.”

1 Chronicles 21:9 Then Yahveh instructed Gad, David’s seer,

1 Chronicles 21:10 “Go and say to David, ‘This is what Yahveh says: I am offering you three choices. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.'”

1 Chronicles 21:11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what Yahveh says: ‘Take your choice:

1 Chronicles 21:12 three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes with the sword of your enemy overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord — a plague on the land, the agent of Yahveh putting an end to the whole territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer to return to the one who sent me.”

1 Chronicles 21:13 David answered Gad, “I’m in anguish. Please, let me fall into Yahveh’s hands because his mercies are very great, but don’t let me fall into human hands.”

1 Chronicles 21:14 So Yahveh sent a plague in Israel, and seventy thousand Israelite men died.

1 Chronicles 21:15 Then God sent an agent to Jerusalem to put an end to it, but when the angel was about to put an end to the city, Yahveh looked, relented concerning the destruction, and said to the angel who was putting an end to the people, “Enough, withdraw your hand now!” The angel of Yahveh was then standing on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

1 Chronicles 21:16 When David looked up and saw the agent of Yahveh standing between the land and the sky, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, David, and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.

1 Chronicles 21:17 David said to God, “Wasn’t I the one who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has failed and acted very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Lord my God, please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house, but don’t let the plague be against your people.”

1 Chronicles 21:18 So the agent of Yahveh ordered Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar to Yahveh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

1 Chronicles 21:19 David went up at Gad’s command spoken in the name of Yahveh.

1 Chronicles 21:20 Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the agent. His four sons, who were with him, hid.

1 Chronicles 21:21 David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground.

1 Chronicles 21:22 David told Ornan, “Give me this threshing-floor plot so that I may build an altar to Yahveh. Give it to me for the full price, so the plague on the people may be stopped.”

1 Chronicles 21:23 Ornan said to David, “Take it! My lord the king may do whatever he wants. See, I give the oxen for the ascending offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the tribute offering — I give it all.”

1 Chronicles 21:24 King David answered Ornan, “No, I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for Yahveh what belongs to you or offer ascending offerings that cost me nothing.”

1 Chronicles 21:25 So David gave Ornan fifteen pounds of gold for the plot.

1 Chronicles 21:26 He built an altar to Yahveh and offered ascending and sacrifices for healthy relationships. He cried out to Yahveh, and he answered[4] him with fire from the sky on the altar of burnt offering.

1 Chronicles 21:27 Then Yahveh spoke to the agent, and he put his sword back into its sheath.

1 Chronicles 21:28 At that time, David offered sacrifices there when he saw that Yahveh answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

1 Chronicles 21:29 The tabernacle of Yahveh, which Moses made in the open country, and the altar of ascending offering were at the high place in Gibeon,

1 Chronicles 21:30, but David could not go before it to inquire of God because he was terrified of the sword of Yahveh’s agent.

[1] אַשְׁמָה = reparation. 1 Chronicles 21:3.

[2] חָטָא = fail. 1 Chronicles 21:8, 17.

[3] עָוֹן = violation. 1 Chronicles 21:8.

[4] עָנָה = answer. 1 Chronicles 21:26, 28.