Divrei Hayamim I 21
Divrei Hayamim I (Book of 1 Chronicles), Chapter 21
'"`UNIQ--named-00000000-QINU`"'1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000001-QINU`"'2 And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people: 'Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them.'
'"`UNIQ--named-00000002-QINU`"'3 And Joab said: 'The HaShem make His people a hundred times so many more as they are; 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?'
'"`UNIQ--named-00000003-QINU`"'4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000004-QINU`"'5 And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew sword; and Judah was four hundred three-score and ten thousand men that drew sword.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000005-QINU`"'6 But Levi and Benjamin he did not number among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000006-QINU`"'7 And G-d was displeased with this thing; therefore He smote Israel.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000007-QINU`"'8 And David said unto G-d: '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.'
'"`UNIQ--named-00000008-QINU`"'9 And HaShem spoke unto Gad, David's seer, saying:
'"`UNIQ--named-00000009-QINU`"'10 'Go and speak unto David, saying: Thus saith HaShem: I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.'
'"`UNIQ--named-0000000A-QINU`"'11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him: 'Thus saith HaShem: Take which thou wilt:
'"`UNIQ--named-0000000B-QINU`"'12 either three years of famine; or three months to be swept away before thy foes, while the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of HaShem, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of HaShem destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to Him that sent me.'
'"`UNIQ--named-0000000C-QINU`"'13 And David said unto Gad: 'I am in a great strait; let me fall now into the hand of HaShem, for very great are His mercies; and let me not fall into the hand of man.'
'"`UNIQ--named-0000000D-QINU`"'14 So HaShem sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
'"`UNIQ--named-0000000E-QINU`"'15 And G-d sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was about to destroy, HaShem beheld, and He repented Him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel: 'It is enough; now stay thy hand.' And the angel of HaShem was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
'"`UNIQ--named-0000000F-QINU`"'16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of HaShem standing between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000010-QINU`"'17 And David said unto G-d: '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 Thy hand, I pray Thee, O HaShem my G-d, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against Thy people, that they should be plagued.'
'"`UNIQ--named-00000011-QINU`"'18 Then the angel of HaShem commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and rear an altar unto HaShem in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000012-QINU`"'19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of HaShem.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000013-QINU`"'20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons that were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000014-QINU`"'21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000015-QINU`"'22 Then David said to Ornan: 'Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto HaShem; for the full price shalt thou give it me; that the plague may be stayed from the people.'
'"`UNIQ--named-00000016-QINU`"'23 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 thee the oxen for burnt-offerings, and the threshing-instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering; I give it all'
'"`UNIQ--named-00000017-QINU`"'24 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 HaShem, nor offer a burnt-offering without cost.'
'"`UNIQ--named-00000018-QINU`"'25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
'"`UNIQ--named-00000019-QINU`"'26 And David built there an altar unto HaShem, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon HaShem; and He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.
'"`UNIQ--named-0000001A-QINU`"'27 And HaShem commanded the angel; and he put up his sword back into the sheath thereof.
'"`UNIQ--named-0000001B-QINU`"'28 At that time, when David saw that HaShem had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
'"`UNIQ--named-0000001C-QINU`"'29 For the tabernacle of HaShem, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
'"`UNIQ--named-0000001D-QINU`"'30 But David could not go before it to inquire of G-d; for he was terrified because of the sword of the angel of HaShem.
See also
References
Portions © 1997 by Benyamin Pilant. Portions © 1998 by Larry Nelson.
