1 And the Accuser stood up against Israel, and incited David to count Israel.

2 And David said to Joab, and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer–sheba’ even to Dan, and bring their number to me, that I may know it.

3 Then said Joab, May the Lord add unto his people, how many soever they be, a hundred–fold more: are they not all, my lord the king, my lord’s servants? why then will my lord require this thing? why shall it be a cause of guiltiness for Israel?

4 Nevertheless the king’s word remained firm against Joab; and Joab went out, and moved about throughout all Israel, and came back to Jerusalem.

5 And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto David: and there were in all Israel a thousand times thousand and one hundred thousand men that drew the sword: and of Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men that drew the sword.

6 But Levi and Benjamin did he not count among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.

7 And this thing was displeasing in the eyes of God, and he smote Israel.

8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing; but now, I beseech thee, cause the iniquity of thy servant to pass away; for I have acted very foolishly.

9 And the Lord spoke unto Gad, David’s seer, saying,

10 Go and speak unto David, saying, Thus hath said the Lord, Three things do I offer thee: choose for thyself one of them, and I will do it unto thee.

11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus hath said the Lord, Select for thyself,

12 Whether there shall be three years famine; or three months, to be destroyed before thy adversaries, so that the sword of thy enemies overtake thee; or that during three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, shall be in the land, and an angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the boundaries of Israel? And now reflect what word I shall bring back to him that hath sent me.

13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall then into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are very great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.

14 So the Lord sent a pestilence in Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was destroying, the Lord looked on, and he bethought himself of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough: now stay thy hand. And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing–floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heavens, with his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. Then fell David, with the elders wrapt in sackcloth, upon their faces.

17 And David said unto God, Was it not I that ordered to count the people? and I am the one that have sinned and have done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? O Lord my God, let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house, but not against thy people, that there should be a plague.

18 And the angel of the Lord spoke to Gad to say to David, that David should go up, to erect an altar unto the Lord on the threshing–floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 And David went up by the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord.

20 And when Ornan turned back, and saw the angel, then did he and his four sons with him hide themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

21 And as David came up to Ornan, Ornan looked up and saw David; and he went out of the threshing–floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

22 Then said David to Ornan, "Grant me the site of this threshing–floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto the Lord: for the full price shalt thou give it unto me, so that the plague may be stayed from the people."

23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it for thyself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes: lo, I give the oxen for burnt–offerings, and the threshing–rollers for wood, and the wheat for the meat–offering; the whole do I give thee.

24 And king David said to Ornan, No: but I will surely buy it at the full value; for I will not take what is thine for the Lord, so as to offer burnt–offerings without paying therefore.

25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.

26 And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt–offerings and peace–offerings, and he called on the Lord: and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt–offering.

27 And the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put back his sword into its sheath.

28 At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing–floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then did he sacrifice there.

29 But the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt–offering, were at that time in the high–place at Gib’on.

30 But David was not able to go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.