2 Samuel 24 And the LORD was wroth again against Israel, and stirred up David against them, saying, "Go and number both Israel and Judah."

MSTC⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ And the LORD was wroth again against Israel, and stirred up David against them, saying, "Go and number both Israel and Judah." ² And forthwith the king said to Joab the captain of his Host, "Go abroad, I pray thee, throughout all the tribes of Israel, even from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people that I may know the number of them." ³ And Joab said unto the king, "I beseech that the LORD thy God make the people as many more as they be: yea and a hundred times so many more, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see them. But how is it that my lord the king hath a lust in this thing?" ⁴ Notwithstanding, the king's words prevailed against Joab and against all the captains of the Host. Then Joab and the captains of the Host went out from the king, to view the people of Israel. ⁵ And they passed over Jordan and pitched in Aroer on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the valley of Gad and so forth to Jazer. ⁶ And then they went to Gilead and to the nether land of Hodshi, and from thence to Dan-Jaan, and about to Sidon, ⁷ and came to the strong town of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Cananites, and then went out to the South of Judah even to Beersheba. ⁸ And so when they had been abroad throughout all the land they returned to Jerusalem again at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹ And then Joab delivered up the reckoning of the number of the people unto the king. And there were found in Israel nine hundred thousand men of might that drew swords. And the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. ¹⁰ And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And he said unto the LORD, "I have sinned exceedingly in that I have done. And now LORD take away the trespass of thy servant: for I have done foolishly." ¹¹ And when David was up in a morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, ¹² "Go and say unto David, 'Thus sayeth the LORD: I offer thee three things, choose which of them I shall do to thee.'" ¹³ And Gad came to David and showed him and said unto him, "Whether wilt thou have seven years hunger in thy land, or that thou flee three months before thine enemies and they following thee, or that there be three days pestilence in thy land? Now understand, and see what word I shall bring again to him that sent me." ¹⁴ Then said David unto Gad, "I am in a marvelous strait. But let me fall I pray thee, into the hands of the LORD, for much is his mercy, and let me not fall into the hands of men. ¹⁵ And the LORD sent a pestilence in Israel from the morning unto the end of the time appointed. And there died of the people between Dan and Beersheba seventy thousand men. ¹⁶ And when the Angel stretched out his hand unto Jerusalem to have destroyed it, the LORD had compassion to do that evil, and said to the Angel that destroyed the people, "It is sufficient: let thine hand cease." And the Angel was at the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷ Then spake David unto the LORD when he saw the Angel that smote the people, and said, "Lo, it is I that have sinned, and I that have done wickedly. But these sheep what have they done? Let I pray thee thine hand be on me and on my father's house." ¹⁸ And Gad came the same day to David and said unto him, "Go up and rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." ¹⁹ And David according to the saying of Gad went up as the LORD commanded. ²⁰ And when Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out: and bowed himself to the king flat on his face to the ground, ²¹ and said, "Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor of thee, for to make an altar unto the LORD that the plague may cease from the people." ²² And Araunah said unto the king, "Let my lord the king take and offer what seemeth him good in his eyes: Behold, oxen for sacrifice, and sleds and the other instruments of the oxen for wood." ²³ And Araunah the king's friend gave all to the king, and said moreover unto the king, "The LORD thy God accept thee." ²⁴ But the king said unto Araunah, "Not so, but I will buy it of thee at a price, and will not offer sacrifice unto the LORD my God that shall cost me nought." And so David bought the threshing floor, and the oxen for fifty sicles of silver. ²⁵ And David built there an altar unto the LORD and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. And so the LORD was agreed with the land. And the plague ceased from Israel.