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¹ And again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.² And the king said to Joab, the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number the people, that I may know the sum of the people.³ And Joab said to the king, May Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, a hundredfold; 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 host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.⁵ And they passed over the Jordan, and began from Aroer and from 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 the Hittites, to Kadesh; and they came to Dan-jaan, and round about 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 Beer-sheba.⁸ So when they had gone to and from through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.⁹ And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

¹⁰ And David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to Yahweh, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, O Yahweh, put away, I urge you, the iniquity of your slave; for I have done very foolishly.¹¹ And when David rose up in the morning, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,¹² Go and speak to David, Thus says Yahweh, I offer you three things: choose for yourself one of them, that I may do it to you.¹³ So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, 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 advise, and consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me.¹⁴ And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are great; and don't let me fall into the hand of man.¹⁵ So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.¹⁶ And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh repented of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay your hand. And the angel of Yahweh was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.¹⁷ And David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Look, I have sinned, and I, the shepherd, have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? let your hand, I pray you, be against me, and against my father's house.

¹⁸ And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to Yahweh in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁹ And David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded.

²⁰ And Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his slaves coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹ And Araunah said, Why is my lord the king come to his slave? And David said, To buy the threshing-floor of you, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

²² And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up that which is good in his eyes: look, the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood:

²³ all this, O king, does Araunah give to the king. And Araunah said to the king, Yahweh your God accept you.

²⁴ And the king said to Araunah, No; but I will truly buy it of you at a price. Neither will I offer burnt-offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

²⁵ And David built an altar there to Yahweh, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.