2 Samuel
Chapter 24
1 God became angry with Israel again, and he influenced David to count the people of Israel and Judah.
2 The king told Joab, the army commander with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, so I can know how many there are.”
3 Joab said to the king, “May God increase your people a hundred times over, and may you, the king, see it. But why do you, the king, want this?”
4 Despite what the king commanded, Joab and the army leaders went out to count the people of Israel.
5 They crossed the Jordan River and camped in Aroer, to the east of the city by the Gad River, near Jazer.
6 They went to Gilead and the land of Tahtimhodshi, then to Danjaan, and near Zidon.
7 They reached the fortress of Tyre and the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, then moved south towards Judah, as far as Beersheba.
8 After exploring the whole land for nine months and twenty days, they arrived in Jerusalem.
9 Joab told the king the total number of people, and there were 800,000 brave men with swords in Israel; and 500,000 men in Judah.
10 David felt guilty after he counted the people. David told God, “I have sinned a lot by doing this. Now, I ask you, God, please forgive your servant’s wrongdoing, for I have been very foolish.”
11 When David got up in the morning, God’s message came to the prophet Gad, David’s advisor, saying,
12 Go and tell David, God says, I give you three choices; pick one, so I can do it for you.
13 Gad went to David, told him, and asked, “Do you want seven years of hunger in your land, or to run away for three months from your enemies chasing you, or to have three days of disease in your land? Think about it and tell me what reply I should give to the one who sent me.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am in big trouble. Let’s surrender to God because he is very merciful, and I don’t want to be captured by people.”
15 God sent a disease on Israel from morning until the set time, and 70,000 men died from Dan to Beersheba.
16 When the angel reached out to destroy Jerusalem, God changed his mind about the harm, and told the angel killing the people, “That’s enough, stop now.” The angel of God was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 David spoke to God when he saw the angel striking the people and said, “I have sinned, and I have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your punishment be on me and my family.”
18 Gad went to David that day and told him, “Go, build an altar to God on Araunah the Jebusite’s threshing floor.”
19 David went up as God had ordered, following Gad’s advice.
20 Araunah saw the king and his helpers coming toward him, so Araunah went out and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king.
21 Araunah asked, “Why has the king come to his servant?” David replied, “To buy your threshing floor to make an altar for God, so the sickness can be stopped from hurting the people.”
22 Araunah said to David, “Let the king choose and give whatever he wants: see, there are oxen for burning as a sacrifice, and tools for threshing and wood from the oxen equipment.”
23 Araunah gave all these things to the king like a king would, and said to the king, “May God accept you.”
24 The king told Araunah, “No, I will definitely buy it from you at a fair price; I won’t give burnt offerings to God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver.
25 David built an altar to God there, and gave burnt and peace offerings. So God listened concerning the land, and the plague stopped in Israel.