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1 Chronicles 21

21 Then the opponent of the Israelites made trouble for them by provoking David to find out how many Israelite men were able to fight in the army.

2 King David told Joab and the other army commanders, “Go out and count all the men in Israel who are able to fight in the army. Start at Beersheba in the south and go all the way to Dan in the north. Then come back and report to me so that I will know how many of those men there are.”

3 But Joab replied, “Your Majesty, I hope that Yahweh will make our army a hundred times larger than it is now. All the Israelite men are ready to obey you. So I do not think you should do this, Your Majesty. It would make us Israelites guilty.”

4 But King David insisted that Joab do as he had said. So Joab and his soldiers went throughout the land of Israel and counted the men who could fight. Then they returned to Jerusalem, 5 Joab reported to David that they had counted 470,000 men in Judah who could fight in the army, and they had counted 1,100,000 men in the rest of Israel who could fight in the army. 6 However, Joab did not count any men from the tribes of Levi and Benjamin. That was because what the king had commanded him to do disgusted him.

7 God considered that David had done a bad thing by counting the men, so he punished the Israelites. 8 Then David prayed to God, “I committed a terrible sin by doing this. What I did was very foolish. So now I ask you please to forgive my sin.”

9 Then Yahweh told Gad, David’s prophet, 10 “Go and tell David, ‘Yahweh says this: “There are three ways I might punish you. I will allow you to choose which one I use to punish the Israelites.” ’ ”

11 So Gad went to David and told him, “Yahweh says, ‘Choose one of these punishments. 12 There can be three years of famine in Israel. There can be three months when your enemies defeat your soldiers and kill many of them. Or there can be three days when I send a plague that will kill many Israelites. An angel of mine will kill people throughout your territory. Now tell me what I should reply to Yahweh, who sent me to you.”

13 David said to Gad, “Those are terrible things for me to have to choose between! But let Yahweh be the one to punish me with a plague, since he is very merciful. Do not let humans be the ones to punish me.”

14 So Yahweh sent a plague on the people of Israel, and 70, 000 Israelite people died because of the plague. 15 So God sent an angel to kill the people in Jerusalem with a plague. While the angel was doing that, Yahweh saw how the people were suffering, and decided to stop the plague. So he told the angel “Stop what you are doing! That is enough!” At that time, the angel was standing at the place where Ornan the Jebusite threshed his grain.

16 David looked up and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between the sky and the land. The angel had drawn his sword, and he was holding it out in his hand toward Jerusalem. David was with the elders of the city. They were all wearing rough cloth to show they were sorry for their sins. They bowed down humbly to the ground.

17 David prayed to God, “I am the one who ordered my officers to count the men who could fight in the army. I am the one who sinned by doing this wrong thing. But the Israelite people have done nothing wrong. They are as innocent as sheep. So Yahweh my God, please punish me and my family, but do not let this plague kill any more of your people.”

18 Then Yahweh’s angel told Gad to tell David that he should go to the place where Ornan threshed grain and build an altar to worship Yahweh there. 19 So David did what Gad told him to do, which was what Yahweh had commanded.

20 While Ornan was threshing some wheat, he turned around and saw the angel. His four sons who were with him also saw the angel, and they hid themselves. 21 Then David approached the place where Ornan was. When Ornan saw him, he left the place where he was threshing grain. He came and bowed down in front of David with his face touching the ground.

22 David said to Ornan, “Sell me this threshing place so I can build an altar here to worship Yahweh so that he will stop this plague from killing any more people. I will pay the full price.”

23 Ornan answered David, “I will give it to you, Your Majesty, and you can do whatever you want with it. I will also give you the oxen that thresh my grain for you to burn as an offering on the altar. I will give you my wooden threshing boards to use as fuel for the fire. I will give you the wheat I have threshed for a grain offering. I will give you everything.”

24 But King David said to Ornan, “No, instead, I will certainly pay you the full price. I will not take things that still belong to you because I have not paid for them and offer them to Yahweh as my own burnt offering.”

25 Then David paid Ornan six and a half kilograms of gold for the property. 26 David built an altar to worship Yahweh there, and he offered burnt sacrifices and fellowship sacrifices on the altar. When David prayed to Yahweh, Yahweh answered by sending fire from heaven to burn up the offerings on the altar.

27 Then Yahweh told the angel to put his sword back into its sheath, and the angel did that. 28 Then David realized that Yahweh had answered his prayers at the place where Ornan threshed grain by ending the plague. So he offered thanksgiving sacrifices there. 29 Moses had built a sacred tent in the wilderness for Yahweh. He had also made an altar for burnt sacrifices. At this time, they were at a hilltop shrine near the city of Gibeon. 30 But David had not gone there to pray to God. That was because he was afraid that Yahweh’s angel might kill him with the plague.

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UST by section 1 CHR 21:1

1 Chronicles 21

UST by section 1 CHR 21:1