2 Samuel 24

God was angry with the Israelite people again, and he led David to do something that caused trouble for them. David caused that trouble by saying, “Find out how many soldiers Israel and Judah have.”

King David said to Joab, the commander of his regular army, “I want you to go with your officers through the territories of all the tribes of Israel, from Dan {in the far north} to Beersheba {in the far south}, and count the men who can fight as soldiers. That way I will know how many Israelite men we have who can fight as soldiers in the army.” \*

But Joab replied to the king, “Your Majesty, I hope that God our God will give us Israelites a hundred times more soldiers than we have now. I hope that you will see this happen {in your own lifetime}. But I do not think it is a good idea to count how many soldiers we have.”

But King David insisted that Joab do as he had said, and he ordered the commanders of the army to do it. So they left his court and went out to count the Israelite men who could fight in war. \*

They crossed the Jordan River and set up their tents south of Aroer, in the middle of the valley. From there they went through the territory of the tribe of Gad, and from there they went {north} to Jazer.

Then they went {north} to Gilead and to the area of Tahtim Hodshi. Then they went to Dan Jaan {in the far north of Israel}, and then they went {farther west} to Sidon.

Then they went south to Tyre, a city that had high walls around it, and also to all the cities where some Hivites and Canaanites still lived. Then they went to Beersheba, in the desolate area in the southern part of the territory of Judah. \*

It took them nine months and 20 days to finish going throughout the land {and counting the people}. After that, they returned to Jerusalem.

They reported to King David the number of men that they had counted. There were 800,000 men in Israel and 500,000 men in Judah who were fit to serve as soldiers in the army. \*

But after David’s officers had counted the fighting men of Israel, David felt very badly that he had told them to do that. He confessed to God, “When I ordered them to do that, I committed a very serious sin. Please forgive me. But now, God, I admit that what I did was very foolish.” \*

When David got up the next morning, God gave a message to the prophet Gad. He was a man who helped David know what God wanted him to do. Gad said to David,

“Go and tell David that I say he must choose one of three punishments that I will describe. I will punish him with the one that he chooses.” \*

So Gad went to David and told him that God had said he would need to choose one of three punishments. He then told David, “You can choose for there to be seven years of famine in Israel. You can choose for your enemies to keep defeating you so badly over the course of three months that your army keeps running away from them. Or you can choose for there to be a plague here in Israel for three days. I will go back and tell God your answer. So think carefully about what you will choose.”

David said to Gad, “All those are very terrible things for me to choose between! But let God be the one to punish me {with a plague}, since he is very merciful. Do not let humans be the ones to punish me.” \*

So God sent a plague on the Israelite people. It started that morning and continued for three days. Throughout the territory of Israel there were 70,000 Israelites who died because of the plague.

Then the angel who had killed all those people lifted his hand toward the city of Jerusalem in order to cause a plague that would kill many of the people who lived there. But God grieved about punishing any more people, and said to the angel “Put your hand back down {and do not cause a plague in Jerusalem}!” When God said that, his angel was standing near the place where Araunah the Jebusite threshed grain. \*

When David saw the angel who was causing the people to become sick and die, he spoke to God. He said, “Truly, I am the one who has committed the sin. I have done a very wicked thing, but these people are as innocent as sheep. They have certainly not done anything that is wrong. So you should punish me and my family, not these people!” \*

That day Gad came to David and told him, “Go to the place where Araunah the Jebusite threshes grain and build an altar to worship God there.”

So David did what Gad told him to do, which was what God had commanded, and he went there.

When Araunah looked down and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he came out of his house and lay down on the ground in front of the king {to honor him}, with his face touching the ground. \*

Araunah said, “Your Majesty, may I ask why you have come to me?” David replied, “I have come to buy this ground where you thresh grain. That way I can build an altar here to God {and offer sacrifices on it} so that he will stop the plague that has been killing so many Israelites.”

Araunah replied to David, “Your Majesty, please offer to God whatever you wish. You may take the oxen that you see here and use them for an offering that you burn completely on the altar. And you may take their yokes and the boards that I use for the threshing, which you also see here, and you may use them for the wood that you will burn.

Your Majesty, I, Araunah, hereby give all these things to you.” Then he said, “I hope that God your God will accept your offering and grant your request.” \*

But the king said to Araunah, “No, I will not accept these things as a gift. I will pay you for them. I will not take things that have cost me nothing and burn them completely on an altar as offerings to God.” So David paid 50 shekels of silver to Araunah for the oxen and the ground.

Then David built an altar there to God. He burned the oxen completely on the altar as an offering. He also offered fellowship sacrifices. Then God answered David’s prayers for the people of his land, and he ended the plague that had been killing so many Israelites.