David Forces a Census

(2 Samuel 24:1-9)

1And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. 2And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them. 3And Joab said, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt unto Israel? 4Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword; 6But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

Judgment for David's Sin

(2 Samuel 24:10-14)

7And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. 8And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now, put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

9And the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying, 10Go and speak unto David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. 11So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Take which thou wilt; 12either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me. 13And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

David's Repentance Spares Jerusalem

14So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 15And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out ever Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against thy people, that they should be plagued.

David Builds an Altar

(2 Samuel 24:18-25)

18Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD. 20And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons that were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. 21And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. 22Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto the LORD: for the full price shalt thou give it me: that the plague may be stayed from the people. 23And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering; I give it all. 24And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering without cost. 25So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. 26And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. 27And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

28At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 29For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. 30But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.