Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number
Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go,
number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I
may know their number.” But Joab said, “May the LORD add to his
people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord
the king, all of them my lord's servants? Why then should my lord
require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?” But
the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went
throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the
sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there
were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah 470,000 who
drew the sword. But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the
numbering, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab.

  But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. And
David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this
thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for
I have acted very foolishly.” And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's
seer, saying, “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, Three
things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’”
So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Choose
what you will: either three years of famine, or three months of
devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes
you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence on the
land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the
territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him
who sent me.” Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let
me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great, but
do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

  So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel
fell. And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he
was about to destroy it, the LORD saw, and he relented from the
calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, “It
is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was
standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David
lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between
earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over
Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell
upon their faces. And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave
command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done
great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your
hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father's house.
But do not let the plague be on your people.”

  Now the angel of the LORD had commanded Gad to say to David that
David should go up and raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing
floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad's word, which
he had spoken in the name of the LORD. Now Ornan was threshing
wheat. He turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with
him hid themselves. As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw
David and went out from the threshing floor and paid homage to
David with his face to the ground. And David said to Ornan, “Give
me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar
to the LORD—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be
averted from the people.” Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and
let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the
oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and
the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.” But King David said
to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not
take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that
cost me nothing.” So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight
for the site. And David built there an altar to the LORD and
presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the
LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven upon the
altar of burnt offering. Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he
put his sword back into its sheath.

  At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at
the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. For
the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness,
and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place
at Gibeon, but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for
he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001
by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.