David counts the people of Israel
1Satan wanted to make trouble for the people of Israel. He made David decide to count all the Israelites. 2David told Joab and the leaders of the Israelites: ‘You must go and count all the Israelites, from the town of Beersheba to the town of Dan, and then you must tell me how many people there are. I want to know.’
3Then Joab said to David: ‘I wish the Lord would make his people 100 times more than they are. But, Your_Majesty, all the people belong to you. Why do you want to do this? The Lord will punish Israel if you do this.’ 4But the king told Joab to do it and Joab had to do what the king said. Joab went to all the places in the land_of_Israel and he came back to Jerusalem. 5He told David how many people he had counted. There were 1 100 000 men of Israel and 470 000 men of Judah who could go to war. 6Joab did not count the men of the Levi tribe and the Benjamin tribe because he did not want to do what the king said.
7The Lord was angry because of what David did and He punished Israel. 8Then David said to God: ‘I did a big sin when I decided to count the people. But please forgive me. Forgive your servant's sin because I have done something very foolish.’ 9One of David's prophets was Gad, the seer. The Lord said to Gad: 10‘You must go to David and tell him I say: “David, there are 3 ways that I can punish you. You must choose one of them, and then I will make that happen to you.” ’ 11Gad went to David and he said to him: ‘The Lord says you must choose what must happen: 12Do you want Me to send a famine for 3 years? Or do you want to flee from your enemies for 3 months? They will chase you and attack you with their swords. Or must the Lord punish your people in the land and cause them to die of a disease for 3 days? Must the angel of the Lord kill people all over the land_of_Israel? You must decide and tell me what I must say to the Lord who has sent me.’
13David said to Gad: ‘I have a big problem. The Lord can do with me what He decides, because He is full of mercy. But I pray that He will not give me to the people so that they can do with me what they want to do.’
14Then the Lord sent a very bad disease over the land_of_Israel and 70 000 Israelites died. 15God sent an angel to Jerusalem to cause people in the city to die, but when the angel started doing it, the Lord decided not to punish them any more and He told the angel who caused the people to die: ‘Stop, it is enough. Put down your hand.’
The angel of the Lord was standing at the threshing-floor of Ornan from the town of Jebus.
David buys the threshing-floor of Ornan
16When David looked up, he saw the angel of the Lord between heaven and earth. The angel had a sword in his hand and he held it over Jerusalem. David and the leaders_of_Israel were wearing sack-cloth and they bowed down low with their faces to the ground.
17Then David said to God: ‘It is I who said they must count the people. It is I who have sinned. It is I who have done wrong. What have these people done wrong? Nothing. You can punish me and my family, but please do not punish these people.’
18The angel of the Lord came to the prophet Gad and said he must tell David to get up and build an altar on the threshing-floor of Ornan from the town of Jebus. 19David went and he did what the Lord had told Gad to say to him. 20Ornan was busy threshing wheat and when he turned_around, he saw the angel. His 4 sons were with him and he hid himself. 21David went to Ornan and when Ornan saw David, he came out from the threshing-floor. He bowed down before David with his face to the ground. 22David said to Ornan: ‘You must sell this place with the threshing-floor to me. I want to build an altar for the Lord here. I will pay you anything you want for it. If I build this altar, the disease will stop.’ 23Ornan said to David: ‘Your_Majesty, you can take it and do with it what you decide. I give you my oxen for a burnt-offering and I give the threshing-sledges for firewood and wheat for a wheat-offering. I will give everything to you.’ 24But King David said to Ornan: ‘No, I will buy it from you. You must tell me how much I must pay you. I want to buy it because I can not sacrifice a burnt-offering for the Lord if I have not paid for it.’
25David then paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold for the place. 26David built an altar for the Lord there and he sacrificed burnt-offerings and meal-offerings. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord answered him. The Lord sent fire from heaven that burnt the offerings on the altar. 27The Lord talked to the angel and the angel put his sword away.
28When David saw that God had answered him at the threshing-floor of Ornan from Jebus, David sacrificed there. 29The tent of the Lord that Moses had told them to make in the desert was still at the place_of_sacrifice at Gibeon. 30But David did not want to go there to the tent of the Lord to ask what God wanted him to do, because he was afraid of the angel of the Lord and his sword.
