And 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.
And 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?
And 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;
And 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.
either 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.
And 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.
And 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.
And 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.
And 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.
Then 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.
Then 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.
And 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 {cf15i thee} the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering; I give it all.
And 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.
And 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.