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¹ And Satan stoode vp against Israel, and prouoked Dauid to number Israel.² And Dauid sayde to Ioab and to the rulers of the people: Go ye and number Israel from Beerseba to Dan: & bring it to me, that I may knowe the number of them.³ And Ioab aunswered: The Lorde make his people an hundred times so many mo as they be: But my lorde, O king, are they not all my lordes seruauntes? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will my lorde be a cause of trespasse to Israel?⁴ Neuerthelesse the kinges word preuayled against Ioab: And Ioab departed, and walked throughout all them of Israel, and came to Hierusalem againe,⁵ And gaue the summe of the number of the people vnto Dauid: And all they of Israel were a thousande thousand and an hundred thousande men that drue sworde: and Iuda was foure hundred threescore and ten thousande men that drue sworde.⁶ But the Leuites and Beniamin counted he not among them: For the kinges word was abhominable to Ioab.

⁷ And the Lorde was displeased with this thing, and smote Israel.⁸ And Dauid sayde vnto God: I haue sinned exceedingly in doyng this thing: And nowe I besech thee, do away the wickednesse of thy seruaunt, for I haue done very foolyshly.⁹ And the Lord spake vnto Gad Dauids sear, saying:¹⁰ Go, and tell Dauid, saying, thus sayth the Lord, I geue thee the choyse of three thinges: choose the one of them, that I may do vnto thee.¹¹ And Gad came to Dauid, and sayd vnto him, thus sayth the Lorde: Choose thee¹² Eyther three yeres famishment, or three monethes to be destroyed before thyne aduersaries, & that the sworde of thyne enemies may ouertake thee: or els the sworde of the Lord and pestilence in the lande three dayes, and the angell of the Lorde destroying throughout all the coastes of Israel: And nowe aduise thy selfe, what worde I shal bring againe to him that sent me.¹³ And Dauid sayde vnto Gad, I am in an exceeding strayte: Let me fall nowe into the hande of the Lorde (for passing great are his mercies) but let me not fal into the hand of men.¹⁴ So the Lorde sent pestilence vpon Israel: and there were ouerthrowen of Israel threescore and ten thousande men.¹⁵ And God sent the angell into Hierusalem to destroy it: And as he was about to destroy, the Lorde behelde, and had compassion on the euyll, & sayde to the angel that destroyed: It is enough, let nowe thyne hand ceasse. And the angel of the Lorde stoode by the threshing floore of Ornan the Iebusite.¹⁶ And Dauid lift vp his eyes, and sawe the angell of the Lorde stand betweene the earth and heauen, hauing a drawen sword in his hand, stretched out toward Hierusalem: Then Dauid and the elders of Israel whiche were clothed in sacke, fell vpon their faces.¹⁷ And Dauid sayde vnto God: Is it not I that commaunded the people to be numbred? It is I that haue sinned and done euyll in deede: and what haue these sheepe done? Let thyne hande O Lorde my God be on me, and on my fathers house: but not on thy people, that they shoulde be punished.

¹⁸ And the angell of the Lord commaunded Gad to say to Dauid, that Dauid shoulde go vp and set vp an aulter vnto the Lorde in the threshing floore of Ornan the Iebusite.¹⁹ And Dauid went vp according to the saying of Gad whiche he spake in the name of the Lorde.²⁰ And Ornan turned about, and saw the angell, and his foure sonnes were with him, and hyd them selues: But Ornan was threshing wheate.²¹ And as Dauid came to Ornan, Ornan loked and sawe Dauid, and went out of the threshing floore, and bowed hym selfe to Dauid with his face to the grounde.²² And Dauid sayde to Ornan: Geue me the place of the threshing floore, that I may buylde an aulter therin vnto the lord: Thou shalt geue it me for as much money as it is worth, that the plague may ceasse from the people.²³ And Ornan sayd vnto Dauid: Take it to thee, and let my lorde the king do that which seemeth good in his eyes: Lo, I geue thee oxen also for burnt sacrifices, and treshing instrumentes for wood, & wheate for meate offring, I geue it all.²⁴ And king Dauid sayde to Ornan: Not so, but I will bye it for as much money as it is worth: For I will not take that whiche is thyne for the Lorde, nor offer burnt offringes without coast.²⁵ And so Dauid gaue to Ornan for that place sicles of golde sixe hundred by wayght.²⁶ And Dauid buylt there an aulter vnto the Lorde, and offred burnt offringes and peace offringes, and called vpon the Lorde, and he hearde him from heauen in fire vpon the aulter of burnt offring.²⁷ And when the Lorde had spoken to the angel, he put vp his sword againe into the sheathe of it.²⁸ At that time when Dauid sawe that the Lorde had hearde him in the thresshing floore of Ornan the Iebusite, he vsed to offer there:²⁹ For the tabernacle of the Lorde which Moyses made in the wildernesse, & the aulter of burnt offring, were at that season in the hill of Gibeon:³⁰ And Dauid coulde not go before it, to aske counsell at God, for he was afrayde of the sword of the angel of the Lorde.