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¹ THEN Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.² So David said to Joab the son of Zuriah and to the princes of the people, Go, number the people of Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and come back to me, that I may know the number of the people.³ And Joab said to King David, May the LORD make his people a hundred times so many more as they are, and let the eyes of my lord the king see it, for they are all his servants; why then should our lord the king require this thing?⁴ Nevertheless the kings word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem.⁵ And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. And the total number of the children of Israel was one million and one hundred thousand footmen who drew the sword; and the tribe of Judah was four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.⁶ But the Levites, the priests, and the tribe of Benjamin were not counted among them; for the kings word was abominable to Joab, and Joab was unwilling to number them.

⁷ And the LORD was displeased with this thing, because David had numbered Israel.⁸ And David said to the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing; but now, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.⁹ And David arose early in the morning, and the word of the LORD came to Gad, the prophet, saying,¹⁰ Go and tell David, saying, Thus says the LORD: I offer you three disasters; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.¹¹ So Gad the prophet came to David and said to him, Thus says the LORD: Choose for yourself¹² Either three years of famine in the land or three months to be defeated before your enemies while they shall pursue you and rule over you or else three days the sword of the LORD in Israel. Now therefore advise what answer you will give to him who sent me to you.¹³ And David said .to Gad, I am in a great distress; let me be delivered into the hands of the LORD; for his mercies are very great; but let me not be delivered into the hand of men.¹⁴ So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.¹⁵ And the LORD sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying it, the LORD saw and considered it and averted the disaster, and said to the angel that destroyed, You have destroyed a great many, stay now your hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of Aran the Jebusite.¹⁶ And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were with him clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.¹⁷ And David said to the LORD, Is it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is who have sinned, and the folly which I have committed is great; but as for these innocent sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my fathers house; but let the plague cease from the people.

¹⁸ Then the angel of the LORD said to Gad the prophet, Go and say to David that David should go up and build an altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Aran the Jebusite.¹⁹ And David went up at the saying of Gad which he spoke in the name of the LORD.²⁰ And David saw the angel who was destroying the people, that he had stayed his hand and was destroying no more.²¹ And as David came to Aran, Aran turned and saw David and went out of his threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.²² Then David said to Aran, Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the LORD; you shall give it to me for money at a good price, that the plague may be stayed from the people.²³ And Aran said to David, Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes; and I will give you oxen also for burnt offering and the threshing instrument for wood and the wheat for the meal offering; everything which is needed I shall give it all.²⁴ But King David said to Aran, Far be it, but I will surely buy it with money for the full price; for I will not take that which is yours and offer a burnt offering to the LORD without cost.²⁵ So David bought from Aran that place of the threshing floor for fifty shekels.²⁶ And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings of lambs, and prayed before the LORD and he answered him, and fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings that were upon the altar.²⁷ And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put back his sword again into its sheath.²⁸ At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing floor of Aran the Jebusite, then he offered there many sacrifices.²⁹ And he pitched there before the LORD the tabernacle which Moses had made in the wilderness when the children of Israel went forth out of Egypt.³⁰ At that time David was exceedingly afraid, and could not go to pray before the LORD for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.