Revised
Standard Version of the Holy Bible
1
Chronicles Chapter 21 (Revised Standard Version)
1 Chronicles 21
1 Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel.
2 So David said to Jo'ab and the commanders of the army, "Go,
number Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may
know their number."
3 But Jo'ab said, "May the LORD add to his people a hundred
times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my
lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should he bring
guilt upon Israel?"
4 But the king's word prevailed against Jo'ab. So Jo'ab departed and
went throughout all Israel, and came back to Jerusalem.
5 And Jo'ab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In
all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the
sword, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand who drew the sword.
6 But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the
king's command was abhorrent to Jo'ab.
7 But God was displeased with this thing, and he smote Israel.
8 And David said to God, "I have sinned greatly in that I have
done this thing. But now, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy
servant; for I have done very foolishly."
9 And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 "Go and say to David, 'Thus says the LORD, Three things I
offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.'"
11 So Gad came to David and said to him, "Thus says the LORD,
'Take which you will:
12 either three years of famine; or three months of devastation by
your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three
days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence upon the land, and the angel of
the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.' Now decide
what answer I shall return to him who sent me."
13 Then David said to Gad, "I am in great distress; let me fall
into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but let me not
fall into the hand of man."
14 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell seventy
thousand men of Israel.
15 And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but when he was
about to destroy it, the LORD saw, and he repented of the evil; and he
said to the destroying angel, "It is enough; now stay your
hand." And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor
of Ornan the Jeb'usite.
16 And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing
between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over
Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon
their faces.
17 And David said to God, "Was it not I who gave command to
number the people? It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But
these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O LORD my
God, be against me and against my father's house; but let not the plague
be upon thy people."
18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David that
David should go up and rear an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of
Ornan the Jeb'usite.
19 So David went up at Gad's word, which he had spoken in the name of
the LORD.
20 Now Ornan was threshing wheat; he turned and saw the angel, and
his four sons who were with him hid themselves.
21 As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went forth
from the threshing floor, and did obeisance to David with his face to the
ground.
22 And David said to Ornan, "Give me the site of the threshing
floor that I may build on it an altar to the LORD -- give it to me at its
full price -- that the plague may be averted from the people."
23 Then Ornan said to David, "Take it; and let my lord the king
do what seems good to him; see, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and
the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for a cereal offering. I
give it all."
24 But King David said to Ornan, "No, but I will buy it for the
full price; I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt
offerings which cost me nothing."
25 So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the
site.
26 And David built there an altar to the LORD and presented burnt
offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD, and he answered
him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then the LORD commanded the angel; and he put his sword back into
its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the
threshing floor of Ornan the Jeb'usite, he made his sacrifices there.
29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the
wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high
place at Gibeon;
30 but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was
afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
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