1Chronicles:21:1-22

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* And the Accuser stood up against Israel , and incited David to count Israel . * And David said to Joab , and to the princes of the people , Go , number Israel from Beer –sheba ’ even to Dan , and bring their number to me , that I may know it . * Then said Joab , May the Lord add unto his people , how many soever they be , a hundred –fold more : are they not all , my lord the king , my lord ’s servants ? why then will my lord require this thing ? why shall it be a cause of guiltiness for Israel ? * Nevertheless the king ’s word remained firm against Joab ; and Joab went out , and moved about throughout all Israel , and came to Jerusalem . * And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto David : and there were all Israel a thousand times thousand and one hundred thousand men that drew the sword : and Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men that drew the sword . * But Levi and Benjamin did he not count among them : for the king ’s word was abominable to Joab . * And this thing was displeasing in the eyes of God , and he smote Israel . * And David said unto God , I have sinned greatly , because I have done this thing ; but now , I beseech thee , cause the iniquity of thy servant to pass away ; for I have acted very foolishly . * And the Lord spoke unto Gad , David ’s seer , saying , * Go and speak unto David , saying , Thus hath said the Lord , Three things do I offer thee : choose for thyself one of them , and I will do it unto thee . * So Gad came to David , and said unto him , Thus hath said the Lord , Select for thyself , * Whether there shall be three years famine ; or three months , to be destroyed before thy adversaries , so that the sword of thy enemies overtake thee ; or that during three days the sword of the Lord , even the pestilence , shall be in the land , and an angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the boundaries of Israel ? And now reflect what word I shall bring back to him that hath sent me . * And David said unto Gad , I am in a great strait : let me fall then into the hand of the Lord ; for his mercies are very great ; but let me not fall into the hand of man . * So the Lord sent a pestilence in Israel , and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men . * And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it ; but as he was destroying , the Lord looked on , and he bethought himself of the evil , and said to the angel that destroyed , It is enough : now stay thy hand . And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing –floor of Ornan the Jebusite . * And David lifted up his eyes , and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heavens , with his sword drawn in his hand , stretched out over Jerusalem . Then fell David , with the elders wrapt in sackcloth , upon their faces . * And David said unto God , Was it not I that ordered to count the people ? and I am the one that have sinned and have done evil indeed ; but these sheep , what have they done ? O Lord my God , let thy hand , I pray thee , be against me , and against my father ’s house , but not against thy people , that there should be a plague . * And the angel of the Lord spoke to Gad to say to David , that David should go up , to erect an altar unto the Lord on the threshing –floor of Ornan the Jebusite . * And David went up by the word of Gad , which he had spoken in the name of the Lord . * And when Ornan turned back , and saw the angel , then did he and his four sons with him hide themselves . Now Ornan was threshing wheat . * And as David came up to Ornan , Ornan looked up and saw David ; and he went out of the threshing –floor , and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground . * Then said David to Ornan , "Grant me the site of this threshing –floor , that I may build thereon an altar unto the Lord : for the full price shalt thou give it unto me , so that the plague may be stayed from the people ."

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