1 Chronicles 21
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
Satan interfered to cause trouble for Israel. He provoked David to do a census of Israel.
2 And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
So David told Joab and the army commanders, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so I can have a total number.”
3 And Joab said, Jehovah add to his people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold: are they not all, my lord O king, my lord's servants? why does my lord require this thing? why should he become a trespass to Israel?
But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his people a hundred times over. Your Majesty, aren't they all your subjects? Why do you want to do this? Why should you make Israel guilty?”
4 But the king's word prevailed against Joab; and Joab departed, and went through all Israel, and came [again] to Jerusalem.
But the king was adamant so Joab left and went all over Israel. Eventually he returned to Jerusalem,
5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. And all they of Israel were eleven hundred thousand men that drew sword; and of Judah, four hundred and seventy thousand men that drew sword.
and he gave David the number of people censused. In Israel there were 1,100,000 fighting men who could handle a sword, and 470,000 in Judah.
6 But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
However, Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the census total, because he disagreed with what the king had ordered.
7 And God was displeased on account of this thing, and he smote Israel.
The Lord considered the census a bad thing to do and he punished Israel for it.
8 And David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing; and now, I beseech thee, put away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
Then David said to God, “I have committed a terrible sin by doing this. Please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have been very stupid.”
9 And Jehovah spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
The Lord told Gad, David's seer,
10 Go and speak to David saying, Thus saith Jehovah: I offer thee three [things]; choose one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
“Go and tell David that this is what the Lord says: ‘I'm giving you three options. Choose one of them, and that's what I'll do to you.’”
11 And Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus saith Jehovah:
So Gad went and told David, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Make your choice:
12 Choose thee, either three years of famine, or three months to be destroyed before thine adversaries while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee, or three days the sword of Jehovah and the pestilence in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying through all the borders of Israel. And now consider what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
either three years of famine; or three months of devastation, running from the swords of your enemies; or three days of the Lord's sword—in other words three days of plague in the land, with an angel of the Lord causing destruction throughout the whole of Israel.’ Now you have to decide how I should reply to the one who sent me.”
13 And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.
David replied to Gad, “This is an awful situation for me! Please, let the Lord decide my punishment, for he is so merciful. Don't let me be punished by people.”
14 And Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
So the Lord a plague on Israel, and 70,000 Israelites died.
15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, Jehovah beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough; withdraw now thine hand. And the angel of Jehovah stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
God also sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But just as the angel was about to destroy it, the Lord saw it, and he relented from causing such a disaster. He told the destroying angel, “That's enough. You can stop now.” Right then the angel of the Lord was standing beside the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah stand between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
When David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, holding his drawn sword extended over Jerusalem, David and the elders, wearing sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17 And David said to God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned and done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, Jehovah my God, be on me and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be smitten.
David said to God, “Wasn't it me who ordered the census of the people? I'm the one who has sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Lord my God, please punish me and my family, but don't punish your people with this plague.”
18 And the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to tell David to go and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of Jehovah.
So David went and did what Gad had told him in the name of the Lord.
20 And Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
Ornan was busy threshing wheat. He turned around and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him went and hid.
21 And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with [his] face to the ground.
When David arrived, Ornan looked out and saw David. He left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
22 And David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of the threshing-floor, that I may build an altar in it to Jehovah: grant it to me for the full money, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
David said to Ornan, “Please let me have the threshing floor. I'll buy it at its full price. Then I can build an altar to the Lord here so that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
23 And Ornan said to David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his sight: see, I give the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges for wood, and the wheat for the oblation; I give it all.
“Take it, and Your Majesty can do whatever you want with it,” Ornan told David. “You can have the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing boards for firewood, and the wheat for a grain offering. I'll give it all to you.”
24 And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will in any case buy [them] for the full money; for I will not take that which is thine for Jehovah, to offer up a burnt-offering without cost.
“No, I insist, I will pay the full price,” replied King David “I won't take for the Lord what is yours or present burnt offerings that didn't cost me anything.”
25 And David gave to Ornan for the place in shekels of gold the weight of six hundred [shekels].
So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the place.
26 And David built there an altar to Jehovah, and offered up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon Jehovah; and he answered him from the heavens by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.
David built an altar to the Lord there and presented burnt offerings and friendship offerings. He called on the Lord in prayer, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27 And Jehovah spoke to the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.
Then the Lord told the angel to put his sword back into its sheath.
28 At that time when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
When David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.
29 And the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
At that time the tent of the Lord that Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at the high place in Gibeon.
30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Jehovah.
But David did not want to go there to ask God's will, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
