2 Samuel 24 — Read & Listen Online

David Takes a Census

Chapter 24.

Again the anger of our Father burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go, take a census of Israel and Judah."

So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, "Go now throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, so that I may know the number of the people."

But Joab said to the king, "May your Father add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do this thing?"

But the king's command overruled Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army left the king's presence to count the people of Israel.

They crossed the Jordan and camped near Aroer, south of the city that lies in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer. Then they came to Gilead and to the region of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon, and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites, and they went out to the Negev of Judah at Beersheba.

So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. Joab reported the census count to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and Judah had five hundred thousand.

David Confesses His Sin

But David's heart struck him after he had counted the people. And David said to our Father, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, my Father, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly."

When David rose in the morning, the word of our Father came to the prophet Gad, David's seer: "Go and say to David, 'This is what our Father says: I am holding three things over you. Choose one of them, and I will carry it out against you.'"

So Gad came to David and told him, asking, "Shall three years of famine come upon your land? Or will you flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now think it over and decide what answer I should bring back to the one who sent me."

Then David said to Gad, "I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hand of our Father, for his compassion is very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man."

The Plague Falls on Israel

So our Father sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. ¹

But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, our Father relented from the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, "Enough! Now stay your hand." The angel of our Father was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

When David saw the angel who was striking the people, he spoke to our Father and said, "Look, I am the one who has sinned; I am the one who has done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please, let your hand fall on me and on my father's house."

David Builds an Altar

That day Gad came to David and said to him, "Go up and raise an altar to our Father on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."

So David went up, according to the word of Gad, as our Father had commanded.

When Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. And Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David replied, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to our Father, so that the plague may be held back from the people."

Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the ox yokes for the wood." "All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you."

But the king said to Araunah, "No, I insist on buying it from you for a price. I will not offer to my Father burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

And David built there an altar to our Father and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So our Father responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.

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