1Satan rose up against Israel and convinced David to take a census of Israel.
2David told Joab and the leaders of the people, "Go and count the people of Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and report back to me so I can know how many there are."
3Joab replied, "May Yahweh make his people a hundred times more numerous than they are now! But, my lord the king, aren't they all your servants? Why does my lord want to do this? Why would he cause Israel to be guilty of sin?"
4However, the king's order overruled Joab. So Joab left and traveled throughout all Israel, then returned to Jerusalem.
5Joab reported the total number of people from the census to David. There were one million one hundred thousand men in Israel who could fight with swords, and four hundred seventy thousand men in Judah who could fight with swords.
6But he did not include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in the count, because Joab found the king's command disgusting.
7God was displeased with this action; therefore, he punished Israel.
8David said to God, "I have sinned greatly by doing this. But now, I beg you, please forgive your servant's wrongdoing, for I have acted very foolishly."
9Yahweh spoke to Gad, David's prophet, saying,
10"Go and tell David, 'Yahweh says: I am giving you three choices. Pick one of them, and I will do it to you.'"
11So Gad came to David and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘You have a choice to make:
12either three years of famine; or three months of being chased by your enemies as their swords overtake you; or three days of Yahweh’s sword, meaning a plague in the land, with Yahweh’s angel destroying people throughout all of Israel. Now decide what answer I should give to the one who sent me.’”
13David said to Gad, “I am in trouble. Please, let me fall into Yahweh’s hand, because his mercy is very great. Do not let me fall into human hands.”
14So Yahweh sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand Israeli men died.
15God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As the angel was about to destroy, Yahweh saw it and changed his mind about bringing the disaster. He said to the destroying angel, “That’s enough! Put away your hand now.” Yahweh’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16David looked up and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between the earth and the sky, holding a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, dressed in burlap, fell on their faces.
17David said to God, “Wasn’t it I who ordered the people to be counted? It was even I who sinned and acted very wickedly. But these innocent people, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me and my family, but not against your people, causing them to suffer a plague.”
18Then Yahweh’s angel told Gad to inform David that he should go up and build an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor belonging to Ornan the Jebusite.
19David went up, as Gad had told him to, speaking in Yahweh’s name.
20Ornan turned around and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Ornan was busy threshing wheat.
21When David reached Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, then left the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.
22Then David said to Ornan, “Give me this threshing floor so I can build an altar to Yahweh here. Sell it to me for the full price, so the plague on the people can be stopped.”
23Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do whatever he thinks is best. Look, I’ll give the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing tools for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I give you everything.”
24King David said to Ornan, “No, I will certainly buy it for the full price. I will not take what is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
25So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
26David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called on Yahweh, and Yahweh answered him from the sky with fire on the altar of burnt offering.
27Then Yahweh commanded the angel, and the angel put his sword back into its sheath.
28At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.
29For Yahweh’s Tabernacle, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
30But David could not go before it to seek God’s will, because he was afraid of the sword of Yahweh’s angel.