¹And Satan made a stand against Israel, and he stirred up David to count Israel. ²And David said to Joab and to the commanders of the people, “Go and count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and report back to me so that I know the number of them.” ³But Joab said, “May the Lord add to his people as they are a hundred times over, but are they not, my lord the king, all my lord's servants? Why does my lord require this? Why should Israel incur this guilt?” ⁴But the king's decision was firmly against Joab, so Joab went out, and he went up and down all of Israel and came back to Jerusalem. ⁵And Joab gave the number of the census of the people to David, and the whole of Israel consisted of one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah consisted of four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword. ⁶But he did not count Benjamin and Levi among them, for the king's word was repugnant to Joab. ⁷Now this matter was wrong in God's sight, and he struck Israel. ⁸And David said to God, “I have greatly sinned in that I did this thing. So now, please remit the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” ⁹Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, as follows: ¹⁰“Go and speak to David and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: «I am offering you three things. Choose one of them, and I will do it to you.» ’ ” ¹¹So Gad went to David and said to him: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Choose, ¹²either three years of famine, or three months of being harassed by your adversaries with the sword of your enemies advancing on you, or three days of the sword of the Lord and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord ravaging in every region of Israel.’ So now, consider what answer I should give to him who sent me.” ¹³Then David said to Gad, “I am very much in a strait. Let me, then, fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are very great, so I won't fall into the hand of man.” ¹⁴So the Lord caused a pestilence in Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. ¹⁵And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but during the destruction, the Lord looked on and grieved over the harm, and he said to the destroying angel, “Enough now; stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶And David raised his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and heaven, with his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, who were covered in sackcloth, fell face down. ¹⁷And David said to God, “Was it not I who said I would count the people? So I am the one who has sinned, and I have caused this terrible harm, but as for these sheep – what have they done? O Lord my God, may your hand be against me and the house of my father, and not against your people with an attack.” ¹⁸Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to say to David, that David should go up to set up an altar to the Lord at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹So David went up according to the words of Gad who had spoken in the name of the Lord. ²⁰And Ornan returned and saw the angel, and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan threshed wheat. ²¹And David came up to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David, and he went out of the threshing floor and prostrated himself to David face down. ²²And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor so that I can build an altar to the Lord in it. Give it to me for the full price so that the plague on the people stops.” ²³And Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what is right in his sight. Look, I have given you the oxen for the burnt offerings and the threshing boards for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering. I have given it all.” ²⁴Then King David said to Ornan, “No, for I insist on buying it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord and offer a burnt offering at no cost.” ²⁵And David gave Ornan by weight six hundred shekels of gold for the site. ²⁶And David built an altar to the Lord there, and he offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings, and he called on the Lord. And he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar for the burnt offering. ²⁷And the Lord spoke to the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath. ²⁸At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. ²⁹And the tabernacle of the Lord which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar for the burnt offering, were at that time at the idolatrous raised site in Gibeon. ³⁰But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was terrified because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.