1Chronicles:21

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* Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel . He made David decide to take a census . * David gave orders to Joab and the other officers . He said : »Go through Israel , from one end of the country to the other , and count the people . I want to know how many there are .« * Joab answered : »May Jehovah make the people of Israel a hundred times more numerous than they are now ! They are all your servants , Your Majesty . Why do you want to do this and make the whole nation guilty ?« * But the king made Joab obey the order . Joab traveled through the whole country of Israel , and then returned to Jerusalem . * He reported to King David the total number of men capable of military service . There were one million one hundred thousand in Israel and four hundred seventy thousand in Judah . * Because Joab disapproved of the king ’s command , he did not take any census of the tribes of Levi and Benjamin . * God was displeased with what had been done , so he punished Israel . * David said to God : »I have committed a terrible sin in doing this ! Please forgive me . I have acted foolishly .« * Jehovah said to Gad , David ’s prophet : * »Tell David that I am giving him three choices . I will do whichever he chooses .« * Gad went to David and told him what Jehovah said . He asked : »Which is it to be ? * »Three years of famine ? Three months of running away from the armies of your enemies ? Or : three days in which Jehovah attacks you with his sword and sends an epidemic on your land . He will use his angel to bring death throughout Israel ? What answer shall I give Jehovah ?« * David replied to Gad : »I am in a desperate situation ! But I do not want to be punished by the people . Let Jehovah be the one to punish me , because he is merciful .« * Therefore Jehovah sent an epidemic on the people of Israel , and seventy thousand of them died . * Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem . Then he changed his mind . He said to the angel : »Stop ! That is enough !« The angel was standing at the threshing place of Araunah , a Jebusite . * David saw the angel standing in midair , holding his sword in his hand , ready to destroy Jerusalem . Then David and the leaders of the people , all of whom were wearing sackcloth bowed low , with their faces touching the ground . * David prayed : »O God , I am the one who did wrong . I am the one who ordered the census . What have these poor people done ? Jehovah , my God , punish my family , and me and spare your people .« * Jehovah ’s angel told Gad to command David to go and build an altar to Jehovah at Araunah ’s threshing place . * David obeyed Jehovah ’s command and did what Gad told him to do . * There at the threshing place Araunah and his four sons were threshing wheat , and when they saw the angel , the sons ran and hid . * Araunah saw King David approaching . He left the threshing place and bowed low with his face touching the ground . * David said to him : »Sell me your threshing place so that I can build an altar to Jehovah , to stop the epidemic . I will give you the full price .« * »Take it , Your Majesty ,« Araunah said , »and do whatever you wish . Here are these bulls to burn as an offering on the altar . Here are the threshing boards to use as fuel and wheat to give as an offering . I give it all to you .« * The king answered : »No , I will pay you the full price . I will not give as an offering to Jehovah something that belongs to you , something that costs me nothing .« * He paid Araunah six hundred gold coins for the threshing place . * David built an altar to Jehovah there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings . He prayed , and Jehovah answered him by sending fire from heaven to burn the sacrifices on the altar . * Jehovah told the angel to put his sword away , and the angel obeyed . * David saw by this that Jehovah answered his prayer . So he offered sacrifices on the altar at Araunah ’s threshing place . * Jehovah ’s tent that Moses made in the desert and the altar for burnt offerings were at the worship site at Gibeon . * David could not go there to consult God because the sword of Jehovah ’s angel frightened him .

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