1 Once again the LORD's anger burned against Israel, and he stirred David up against them, saying, "Go and count Israel and Judah."
2 The king told Joab, the army commander who was with him, "Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and take a census of the people, so I may know how many people there are."
3 Joab said to the king, "May the LORD your God multiply the people a hundredfold, whatever their number, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it! But why does my lord the king want to do this?"
4 But the king's word overruled Joab and the army commanders, so Joab and the army commanders left the king's presence to take a census of the people of Israel.
5 They crossed the Jordan and encamped at Aroer, south of the town in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer.
6 They went on to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; they came to Dan-jaan and around toward Sidon.
7 They came to the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites, and they finished up in the Negev of Judah at Beersheba.
8 Having gone through the whole land, they came back to Jerusalem after nine months and twenty days.
9 Joab reported to the king the total from the census of the people: Israel had eight hundred thousand valiant men able to wield a sword, and the men of Judah numbered five hundred thousand.
10 After he had counted the people, David's heart troubled him. David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, take away your servant's guilt, please, for I have acted very foolishly."
11 When David got up in the morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David's seer:
12 "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I am offering you three things. Choose one of them for me to do to you.'"
13 Gad went to David and told him, "Shall seven years of famine come on your land? Or three months of running from your enemies while they chase you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now think it over and decide what answer I should take back to the one who sent me."
14 David told Gad, "I am in a terrible strait. Let us fall into the LORD's hand, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands."
15 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beersheba.
16 When the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented over the disaster and told the angel who was destroying the people, "Enough! Now draw back your hand." The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 When David saw the angel striking down the people, he said to the LORD, "I am the one who has sinned; I am the one who did wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand fall on me and on my father's house."
18 That day Gad came to David and told him, "Go up and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."
19 So David went up as Gad had said, as the LORD had commanded.
20 Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him. Araunah went out and bowed to the king with his face to the ground.
21 Araunah asked, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague on the people may be stopped."
22 Araunah told David, "Let my lord the king take whatever he likes and offer it up. Look, here are the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the oxen's gear for wood.
23 O king, Araunah gives it all to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God be pleased with you."
24 But the king told Araunah, "No, I insist on buying it from you at a price. I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25 David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then the LORD heeded prayers for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.