1 Chronicles 21

David’s Bad Move with the Census & the Plague

1 Satan stepped up against Israel and got David hyped up to count Israel.

2 So David told Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go count Israel from Beersheba all the way to Dan, and bring me the total number so I know how many people we got.”

3 But Joab said, “May the Lord add a hundred times more people to His people than there already are! But, my lord the king, are they not all your servants, Why Is my lord trying to do this, Why are you going to bring guilt on Israel?”

4 But the king’s word overpowered Joab. So Joab dipped and went throughout all Israel, then came back to Jerusalem.

5 Joab gave David the total count of the people. All Israel had one million one hundred thousand swordsmen, and Judah had four hundred seventy thousand swordsmen.

6 But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them, because the king’s order was disgusting to Joab.

7 This thing that David did was whack in the eyes of God, so He struck Israel.

8 David told God, “I messed up big time by doing this! Now, please take away the sin of Your servant, because I acted like a straight fool.”

9 Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,

10 “Go tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am giving you three options. Pick one of them, so I can do it to you.”’”

11 So Gad came to David and told him, “This is what the Lord says:

12 ‘You want to deal with three years of famine, Or three months of getting wiped out by your enemies, with your enemy’s sword chasing you down, Or three days of the Lord’s sword, with a plague in the land, and the angel of the Lord bringing destruction throughout all the territory of Israel,’ Now, decide what answer I should take back to the One who sent me.”

13 David told Gad, “I am in serious trouble. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, because His mercies are super great. But do not let me fall into human hands.”

14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel dropped.

15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as he was about to destroy it, the Lord looked and had compassion on the disaster, and told the angel who was destroying, “Enough! Pull back your hand!” Now the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered in sackcloth, dropped to their faces.

17 David told God, “is it not me who ordered the people to be counted, I am the one who sinned and did evil. But these sheep, what did they do, Lord my God, please let Your hand be against me and my daddy’s family, but not against Your people to strike them down!”

The Temple Site Chosen

18 Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 So David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord.

20 Now Ornan, as he was threshing wheat, turned around and saw the angel, and his four sons with him hid themselves.

21 When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked up and saw David. He walked out from the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.

22 David told Ornan, “Give me the site of this threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord on it. Sell it to me for its full price, so the plague can be stopped from the people.”

23 Ornan told David, “Take it for yourself! And let my lord the king do whatever he thinks is right. Look, I am giving you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I am giving it all to you!”

24 But King David told Ornan, “Nah! I must buy it from you for its full price. I am not going to take what is yours for the Lord, or offer a burnt offering that cost me nothing.”

25 So David gave Ornan about fifteen pounds of gold for the site.

26 David built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called out to the Lord, and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

27 Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.

28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.

29 Now the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at the high place in Gibeon at that time.

30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was shook by the sword of the angel of the Lord.