24 Then Yahweh was angry against Israel again and he incited David to cause problems for them by saying, “Go and order a census of Israel and Yehudah.” 2 So the king told Yoav, the commander of his army, who was with him at the time, “Travel throughout all the regions of the Israeli tribes, from Dan (in the far north) down to Beersheba (in the far south), and count the people so that I’ll know the number of fighting men.”

3 “May your God Yahweh multiply the people a hundred times over,” Yoav responded, “add may my master the king see that happen, but why would my master the king want to do that?” 4 However, the king insisted, so even though Yoav and the army commanders disagreed, at the king’s command they set off to count the Israeli people.

5 They crossed the Yordan river and camped in Aroer, south of the city in the middle of the Gad valley, then proceeded to Yazer. 6 Then they went north to Gilead and the land of Tahtim-Hodshi, before coming to Dan-Yaan and around to Tsidon. 7 Then they came to the Tsor (Tyre) fortress and all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites before going east to Beersheva in the Negev wilderness (part of Yehudah). 8 So they travelled throughout the land for nine months and twenty days before returning to Yerushalem. 9 Then Yoav reported the census results to the king: 800,000 fighting swordsmen in Israel, and 500,000 in Yehudah.

10 However, David had a guilty conscience after he’d had the people counted and he told Yahweh, “I’ve disobeyed you badly, but now, Yahweh, please take away the iniquity of your servant because I’ve been very foolish.”

11 When David got up in the morning, Yahweh gave the prophet Gad this message 12 to take to David, “I, Yahweh, am offering you three choices. You decide which one I should carry out against you.” 13 Then Gad asked him, “Do you want seven years of famine in your country, or three months of fleeing from your enemies, or three days of plague in your country? Consider those and let me know which option to pass back to the one who sent me.”

14 David answered Gad, “This is very distressing, but please let Yahweh be the one to punish me because he’s very merciful—don’t let other men be the ones.”

15 So Yahweh sent a plague to Israel from the morning and until the time he’d decided. Seventy thousand people died from Dan in the north down to Beersheba in the south. 16 When Yahweh’s messenger stretched out his hand to destroy Yerushalem with the plague, Yahweh relented concerning the disaster and told the messenger who was destroying many people, “Now lower your hand.” When he said that, his messenger was near the threshing floor of Aravnah the Jebusite.

17 David had complained to Yahweh when he saw the messenger afflicting the people, saying, “Listen, it’s me alone who sinned, and I myself who disobeyed you. But these innocent people—what have they done? Please, just punish only me and my relatives.”

David builds an altar

18 Gad came to David that day, and instructed him, “Go to the Yebusite Aravnah’s threshing floor and build an altar to Yahweh there.” 19 So David went there just as Yahweh had instructed him through Gad’s message. 20 When Aravnah looked out and saw the king and his servants approaching, he went out and fell to his knees in front of the king and bowed his face to the ground. 21 “Why would my master the king come to his servant?” Aravnah asked.

“I want to buy your threshing floor to build an altar for Yahweh,” David answered. “So that the plague afflicting the people can be stopped.”

22 “May my master the king take it,” Aravnah responded. “Use it in whatever way you think best. See, you can use the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the oxen’s equipment for firewood. 23 I give it all to you, the king. May your God Yahweh accept your offering.”

24 “No,” the king answered. “I’ll definitely buy it from you. I couldn’t offer something to my God Yahweh that cost me nothing.” 25 So David built an altar there to Yahweh, and he instructed for burnt offerings and peace offerings to be made. Then Yahweh accepted prayers for the country and the plague against Israel was stopped.