King James Version

1 And the LORD also added to be angry with Israel, and He stirred up David against them, saying, "Go, count Israel and Judah." 2 And the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, "Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, and I will know the number of the people." 3 And Joab said to the king, "May Yahweh your God be with the people as with them, and may their eyes of my lord the king see; and why does my lord the king desire this matter?" 4 And the word of the king strengthened Joab and the commanders of the army, and Joab and the commanders of the army went out before the king to number the people of Israel. 5 And they crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer, to the right of the city that is in the midst of the great river, and toward Jazer. 6 And they came to Gilead and to the land of Tachtiyim, and they came to Dan, because, and all around to Sidon. 7 And they came from the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivite and the Canaanite, and they went out to the south of Judah at Beersheba. 8 And they shall go about in all the land and they shall come from the end of nine new months and twenty days to Jerusalem. 9 And Joab gave the count of the people to the king, and Israel was eight hundred thousand men of valor who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. 10 And David's heart struck him after he had counted the people, and David said to the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done, and now, O Lord, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly." 11 And David arose in the morning, and the word of the Lord was to Gad the prophet, David's seer, saying. 12 Go and speak to David, saying, 'Thus says the Lord, "I am taking three things upon you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you."' 13 And Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, "Will there come to you seven years of famine in your land, or three months of fleeing before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should return to the one who sent me." 14 David said to Gad, "I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great, but let me not fall into the hand of man." 15 And the LORD gave a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and there died from the people from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men. 16 And the angel of the Lord sent his hand to destroy it, and the Lord regretted the evil and said to the destroying angel among the people, "Now hold back your hand," and the angel of the Lord was near the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 And David said to the LORD, when he saw the angel who was striking the people, "Here I am; I have sinned, and I have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand be against me and against my father's house." 18 And Gad came to David that day and said to him, "Go up, erect an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." 19 And David went up as Gad had spoken, as the Lord had commanded. 20 And Aravna looked and saw the king and his servants passing by, and Aravna came out and bowed to the king with his face to the ground. 21 And Aravna said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be restrained from the people." 22 And Aravnah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer what is good in his eyes; behold, the cattle for the burnt offering and the threshing implements and all the cattle for the wood." 23 All that Arunah gave to the king, and Arunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you." 24 And the king said to Araunah, "No, for I will buy it from you at a price, and I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and the Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was restrained from Israel.