1 Chronicles 21
21
The Census of Israel and Judah
2Sa 24:1–25
1#Job 1:6–12; 2:1Now Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. 2#1Ch 27:23–24Then David said to Joab and the leaders of the people, “Go count Israel from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report, that I may know their number.”
3But Joab said, “May the Lord increase the number of His people one hundred times more. My lord the king, are not all of them my lord’s servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it bring guilt on Israel?”
4Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab, so Joab departed and went throughout all Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem. 5#2Sa 24:9Joab gave the results of the census of the people to David: All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand men drew the sword.
6However, he did not include the Levites and Benjamin because the word of the king was abhorrent to Joab. 7Now this thing was evil in the sight of God, and He struck Israel.
8#2Sa 12:13So David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Now, please, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
9#1Sa 9:9; 1Ch 29:29And the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10“Go and speak to David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer you; choose one of these for yourself that I may do to you.’ ”
11So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Select for yourself, 12either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemy overtakes you, or three days of the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now then consider what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.”
13#Ps 130:7; 86:15David replied to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
14So the Lord sent a plague throughout Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. 15#Ge 6:6; Ex 32:14And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he prepared to destroy it, the Lord looked and relented from the calamity. And He said to the angel bringing the destruction, “It is enough. Remove your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16#Nu 14:5; 1Ki 21:27David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven with his sword drawn in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. So David and the elders, covered in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the command to number the people? I am the one who has sinned and surely done evil. But these sheep, what have they done? O Lord my God, I pray, let Your hand be against me and my father’s house, but do not let Your people be plagued.”
David Builds an Altar
18#2Ch 3:1Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19So David went up at the word of Gad which he delivered in the name of the Lord.
20#Jdg 6:11Now Ornan turned and saw the angel, but his four sons who were with him hid themselves as Ornan threshed the wheat. 21As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
22Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor so that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. Sell it to me at full price so the plague on the people may be restrained.”
23So Ornan replied to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do whatever seems good in his eyes. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing wagons for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all.”
24Then King David said to Ornan, “No, for I will surely acquire it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
25So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels#About 15 pounds, or 6.9 kilograms. of gold by weight for the site, 26#Lev 9:24; Jdg 6:21and David built there an altar to the Lord and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him by fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27So the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put away his sword in its sheath. 28At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 29#1Ch 16:39; 2Ch 1:3For the tabernacle of the Lord and the altar of burnt offering that Moses had made in the wilderness were in the high place in Gibeon at that time. 30But David was unable to go before it to inquire of God, because he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the Lord.
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1 Chronicles 21: MEV
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