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1 Chronicles 21:1-30 — David Counts the Fighting Men

1Chr.21.1-30

¹Then an adversary stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel. ²So David said to Joab and to the commanders of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, so that I may know their number.” ³But Joab said, “May the LORD multiply his people a hundred times over! My lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why does my lord seek this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?” ⁴Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and traveled throughout all Israel, and then he came to Jerusalem. ⁵And Joab gave the total count of the people to David. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah there were 470,000 men who drew the sword. ⁶But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, because the king's command was detestable to Joab. ⁷This command was also evil in the sight of God, so he struck Israel. ⁸Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” ⁹And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, ¹⁰“Go and speak to David, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: I am offering you three things. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.'” ¹¹So Gad came to David and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Take your choice: ¹²either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days of the sword of the LORD—pestilence in the land, with the Angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.' Now therefore, consider what answer I should return to him who sent me." ¹³David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. 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.” ¹⁴So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. ¹⁵And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as he was about to destroy it, the LORD saw, and he relented from the calamity, and he said to the destroying angel, “Enough! Now withdraw your hand.” And the Angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶When David lifted up his eyes, he saw the Angel of the LORD standing between the earth and the heavens, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. ¹⁷And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the command to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, please let your hand be against me and against my father's house, but do not let this plague be upon your people.” ¹⁸Then the Angel of the LORD commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the LORD. ²⁰Now Ornan turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat. ²¹As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and he went out from the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground. ²²Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the LORD on it. Sell it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be halted from upon the people.” ²³Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give it all.” ²⁴But King David said to Ornan, “No, I will certainly buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.” ²⁵So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site. ²⁶And David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called upon the LORD, and he answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath. ²⁸At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. ²⁹(For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time at the high place in Gibeon; ³⁰but David could not go before it to inquire of God , because he was terrified of the sword of the Angel of the LORD.)

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4/11/2026

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