I Chronicles 21 · דברי הימים א

And an adversary angel stood up against Yisra᾽el, and provoked David to number Yisra᾽el.

And David said to Yo᾽av and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Yisra᾽el from Be᾽er-sheva to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.

And Yo᾽av answered, The Lord make his people a hundred times so many more as they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why then does my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Yisra᾽el?

But the king’s word prevailed against Yo᾽av. So Yo᾽av departed, and went throughout all Yisra᾽el, and came to Yerushalayim.

And Yo᾽av gave the sum of the number of the people to David. In all Yisra᾽el there were one million one hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Yehuda was four hundred and seventy thousand men that drew sword.

But he did not count Levi and Binyamin among them: for the king’s word was abhorrent to Yo᾽av.

And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Yisra᾽el.

And David said to God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of Thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

And the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,

Go and tell David, saying, Thus says the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose one of them, that I may do it to thee.

So Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus say the Lord, Choose,

either three years famine; or three months to be driven away before thy foes, while the sword of thy enemies overtakes thee; or else three days of the Lord’s sword, namely, pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the border of Yisra᾽el. Now therefore consider what word I shall bring back to him who sent me.

And David said to Gad, I am in great distress: let me fall rather into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.

So the Lord sent a plague upon Yisra᾽el: and there fell of Yisra᾽el seventy thousand men.

And God sent an angel to Yerushalayim to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, the Lord beheld, and he relented of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, now hold thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Yevusite.

And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Yerushalayim. Then David and the elders, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

And David said to God, Is it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? so that it is I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let Thy hand, I pray Thee, O Lord my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on Thy people, that they should be plagued.

Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Yevusite.

And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord.

And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord: thou shalt give it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

And Ornan said to David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering; I give it all.

And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will surely buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without payment.

So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.

And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.

And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.

At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Yevusite, then he sacrificed there.

But the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moshe made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Giv῾on.

And David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was terrified because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.