The Census of All Israel
1 Chronicles 21, verse 1. Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 2. So David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, “Go, number Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring the number of them to me that I may know it.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 3. And Joab said, “May the Lord add to His people a hundredfold as many as they are, and let the eyes of my lord the king see all who are the servants of my lord. Why does my lord seek this? Do not allow it, lest it become a sin to Israel.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 4. Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 5. Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah had four hundred and eighty thousand men who drew the sword. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 6. But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king's word was painful to Joab. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 7. And this deed appeared wicked before God; therefore He struck Israel. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 8. So David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing; but now, I pray, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 9. Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, 1 Chronicles 21, verse 10. “Go and tell David, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I offer you three things; so choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.”’” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 11. So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Choose for yourself: 1 Chronicles 21, verse 12. either three years of famine, or that you flee for three months from the face of your enemies and the sword of your enemies utterly destroying you, or that for three days the sword of the Lord and pestilence should be with you in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying the territory throughout all the inheritance of Israel.’ Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 13. And David said to Gad, “Groan for me and for the three exceedingly. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 14. So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 15. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 16. Then David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. So David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 17. And David said to God, “Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and my father's house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 18. Therefore, the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 19. And David went up according to the word of God, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 20. Now Ornan turned and saw the king, and he and his four sons with him hid themselves, but Ornan was threshing wheat. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 21. So David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David. And he went out from the threshing floor, bowing before David with his face to the ground. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 22. Then David said to Ornan, “Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall grant it to me at the full price, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 23. But Ornan said to David, “Take it to yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. Look, I also give you the oxen for whole burnt offerings, the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give it all.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 24. Then King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer whole burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.” 1 Chronicles 21, verse 25. So David gave six hundred shekels of gold by weight for his place. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 26. And there David built an altar to the Lord, and offered whole burnt offerings and peace offerings, and cried out to the Lord; and He answered him by fire from heaven upon the altar of whole burnt offering and consumed the whole burnt offering. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 27. So the Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 28. At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him, he sacrificed there on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 29. For the tabernacle of the Lord that Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the whole burnt offering, were in the high place at Gibeon at the appointed time. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 30. But David was unable to go before it to seek God, for the sword of the angel of the Lord prevented him.