1 Chronicles 21
1 Satan decided to cause the Israeli people to have trouble. So he incited David to find out how many men in Israel [were able to be in the army].
And Satan rose up against Israel: and moved David to number Israel.
2 So David commanded Joab and the other army commanders, “Count all the men in Israel [who are able to be in the army]. Start at Beersheba [town in the south] and go all the way to Dan [city in the north]. Then come back and report to me, in order that I may know how many men there are.”
And David said to Joab, and to the rulers of the people: Go, and number Israel from Bersabee even to Dan, and bring me the number of them that I may know it.
3 But Joab replied, “Your majesty, even if Yahweh allowed us to have 100 times as many soldiers as we have now, you would [RHQ] still rule all of them. So why do you want us to do this? You will surely [RHQ] cause [all the people of] Israel to be guilty of sinning.”
And Joab answered: The Lord make his people a hundred times more than they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all thy servants: why doth my lord seek this thing, which may be imputed as a sin to Israel?
4 But David would not change his mind. So Joab [and his soldiers] went everywhere in Israel and in Judah, and counted the people. Then they returned to Jerusalem,
But the king’s word rather prevailed: and Joab departed, and went through all Israel: and returned to Jerusalem.
5 and they reported to David that there were 1,100,000 men in Israel who could be in the army, and 470,000 in Judah.
And he gave David the number of them, whom he had surveyed: and all the number of Israel was found to be eleven hundred thousand men that drew the sword: and of Juda four hundred and seventy thousand fighting men.
6 Joab did not count the men from the tribes of Levi and Benjamin, because he was disgusted with what the king had commanded.
But Levi and Benjamin he did not number: for Joab unwillingly executed the king’s orders.
7 David’s command to count the people caused God to become angry, so he [told David that he had decided to] punish [the people of] Israel.
And God was displeased with this thing that was commanded: and he struck Israel.
8 Then David prayed, saying, “Yahweh, what I did was very foolish. I have sinned greatly by what I have done. So now I plead with you, please forgive me.”
And David said to God: I have sinned exceedingly in doing this: I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done foolishly.
9 Then Yahweh said to Gad, David’s prophet,
And the Lord spoke to Gad the seer of David, saying:
10 “Go and tell this to David: I am allowing you to choose one of three things [to punish you]. I will do whichever one you choose.”
Go, and speak to David, and tell him: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee the choice of three things: choose one which thou wilt, and I will do it to thee.
11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘You can choose one of these [punishments]:
And when Gad was come to David, he said to him: Thus saith the Lord: choose which thou wilt:
12 three years of famine [in Israel], or three months during which your armies will run away from their enemies [who will attack them with] swords, or three days during which I will send my angel to cause many people in the country to die because of a (plague/very serious illness).’ So, you must decide what I will say to answer [Yahweh, ] the one who sent me.”
Either three years’ famine: or three months to flee from thy enemies, and not to be able to escape their sword: or three days to have the sword of the Lord, and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying in all the coasts of Israel: now therefore see what I shall answer him who sent me.
13 David replied to Gad, “I am very distressed. But allow Yahweh to punish [MTY] me, because he is very merciful. Do not allow humans to punish me, [because they will not be merciful].”
And David said to Gad: I am on every side in a great strait: but it is better for me to fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, than into the hands of men.
14 So Yahweh sent a plague on [the people of] Israel, and 70,000 of them died because of it.
So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. And there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15 And God sent an angel to destroy the people in Jerusalem by the plague. But when the angel was standing at the ground where Araunah, from the Jebus people-group, threshed grain, Yahweh saw all the suffering that the people had endured, and he was grieved. So he said to the angel, “Stop what you are doing [IDM]! That is enough [IDM]!”
And he sent an angel to Jerusalem, to strike it: and as he was striking it, the Lord beheld, and took pity for the greatness of the evil: and said to the angel that destroyed: It is enough, now stop thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the thrashing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and saw the angel whom Yahweh had sent, standing between the sky and the ground. The angel had a sword in his hand that was pointed toward Jerusalem. Then David and the elders [of the city], who were wearing clothes made of rough sackcloth, prostrated themselves on the ground.
And David lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand, turned against Jerusalem: and both he and the ancients clothed in haircloth, fell down flat on the ground.
17 David said to God, “I am [RHQ] the one who ordered the men who could be in the army to be counted. I am the one who has sinned and done what is very wrong, but these people are [as innocent as] [MET] sheep. They have certainly not [RHQ] done anything [that is wrong]. So Yahweh my God, punish [IDM] me and my family, but do not allow this plague to continue to [cause] your people [to become sick and die].”
And David said to God: Am not I he that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned: it is I that have done the evil: but as for this flock, what hath it deserved? O Lord my God, let thy hand be turned, I beseech thee, upon me, and upon my father’s house: and let not thy people be destroyed.
18 Then the angel who was sent by Yahweh told Gad to go up to the place where Araunah threshed grain and tell David to build an altar to [worship] Yahweh there.
And the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David, to go up, and build an altar to the Lord God in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 So [after Gad told] David, [he] obeyed the message that Yahweh [MTY] had given to Gad, [and he went up there].
And David went up, according to the word of Gad, which he spoke to him in the name of the Lord.
20 While Araunah was threshing some wheat, he turned and saw the angel. His four sons who were with him [also saw the angel, and they] hid themselves.
Now when Ornan looked up, and saw the angel, he and his four sons hid themselves: for at that time he was thrashing wheat in the floor.
21 Then David approached. When Araunah saw him, he left the place where he was threshing grain and prostrated himself, with his face touching the ground.
And as David was coming to Ornan, Ornan saw him, and went out of the thrashingfloor to meet him, and bowed down to him with his face to the ground.
22 David said to him, “Please sell me your threshing place in order that I can build an altar here to [worship] Yahweh. Then he will stop this plague. I will pay the full price.”
And David said to him: Give me this place of thy thrashingfloor, that I may build therein an altar to the Lord: but thou shalt take of me as much money as it is worth, that the plague may cease from the people.
23 Araunah replied, “Take it! Your majesty, do whatever you want to. I will give you the oxen [that thresh the grain] for an offering to be completely burned [on the altar]. And I will give you the threshing boards to use as wood [on the altar], and I will give you grain for a grain offering. I will give all those things to you.”
And Ornan said to David: Take it, and let my lord the king do all that pleaseth him: and moreover the oxen also I give for a holocaust, and the drays for wood, and the wheat for the sacrifice: I will give it all willingly.
24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, [I will not take these things as a gift]. I will pay you the full price for it. I will not take things that belong to you, things that have cost me nothing and offer them as sacrifices to Yahweh to be completely burned on the altar.”
And king David said to him: It shall not be so, but I will give thee money as much as it is worth: for I must not take it from thee, and so offer to the Lord holocausts free cost.
25 So David paid Araunah 600 pieces of gold for the whole area.
So David gave to Ornan for the place, six hundred sicles of gold of just weight.
26 David built an altar to [worship] Yahweh there, and he offered sacrifices to be completely burned [on the altar] and sacrifices to restore fellowship [with Yahweh]. David prayed to Yahweh, and Yahweh answered by sending a fire from heaven [to burn up the offerings] on the altar.
And he built there an altar to the Lord: and he offered holocausts, and peace offerings, and he called upon the Lord, and he heard him by sending Are from heaven upon the altar of the holocaust.
27 Then Yahweh spoke to the angel, and told him to put his sword back into its sheath. [So the angel did that].
And the Lord commanded the angel: and he put up his sword again into the sheath.
28 And when David saw that Yahweh had answered him there at the place where Araunah threshed grain [and had ended the plague], he offered sacrifices there.
And David seeing that the Lord had heard him in the thrashingfloor of Oman the Jebusite, forthwith offered victims there.
29 Yahweh’s Sacred Tent, which Moses had commanded to be set up in the desert, and the altar for burning sacrifices completely, were at that time on a hill at Gibeon [city].
But the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the desert, and the altar of holocausts, was at that time in the high place of Gabaon.
30 But David did not want to go there to request God to tell him what he wanted [him to do], because he was afraid that the angel sent from Yahweh [might strike him with] his sword.
And David could not go to the altar there to pray to God: for he was seized with an exceeding great fear, seeing the sword of the angel of the Lord.
