Again the anger of the LORD was strong against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and those of the House of Judah.”

So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer sheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.”

But Joab said to the king, “May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it. But my lord the king, why does he delight in this thing?”

But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out before the king to count the people of Israel.

They crossed the Jordan, and began in Aroer, south of the city that is in the middle of the brook, which is in the tribe of Gad, and in Jazer.

And they came to Gilead, and to the land south of Hodshi. And they came to Dan jaan, and from there they went around to Sidon.

They entered the fortified cities, and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites. And they went out to the South of Judah, to Beer sheba.

So they went through all the land. At the end of nine months and twenty days they came to Jerusalem.

And Joab gave the calculation of the number of people to the king: Israel had eight hundred thousand heroic men, who drew the sword, and the men of Judah had five hundred thousand.

But David was troubled in his heart, after he had counted the people. And David said before the LORD, “I am terribly guilty in what I have done. But now, O LORD, take away the guilt of thy servant; for I have acted very foolishly.”

And when David arose in the morning, a prophetic word from before the LORD came to Gad the prophet, David’s seer, saying,

“Go and speak with David, ‘Thus says the LORD, One of three things I will impose upon you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’”

So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you be fleeing three months before your hater, while he is pursuing you? Or shall there be three days of death in your land? Now, consider and decide what I shall answer to Him who sent me.”

Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us be surrendered now into the hand of the speech of the LORD, for his mercy is great. But let me not be surrendered into the hand of man.”

So the LORD sent death among Israel, from the time that the continual offering is slaughtered until it is sacrificed. And there died from the people, from Dan to Beer sheba, seventy thousand men.

And when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to harm it, the LORD turned back from the evil, and said to the angel who was harming among the people, “Enough now! Stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Arvan the Jebusite.

And David said before the LORD, when he saw the angel who was killing among the people. And he said, “Behold, I have sinned myself, and I have spoilt the whole thing. But these people, who are like sheep in the hand of the shepherd, what have they done? Let thy plague be against me and against my father’s house.”

And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, “Go up, rear an altar before the LORD on the threshing floor of Arvan the Jebusite.

So David went up according to Gad’s word, as the LORD had spoken.

And when Arvan looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him; and Arvan went forth, and bowed down to the king with his face to the ground.

And Arvan said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor of you, in order to build an altar before the LORD, that the epidemic may be averted from the people.”

Then Arvan said to David, “Let my lord the king take and sacrifice what seems right in his sight. See the oxen fit for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the tools of the oxen for the wood.

All that the king has asked him Arvan gives to the king.” And Arvan said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept your sacrifice with pleasure.”

But the king said to Arvan, “No, for I will surely buy it from you for a price. I will not bring up burnt offerings before the LORD my God for nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty selas.

And David built there an altar before the LORD, and brought up burnt offerings and holy sacrifices. And the LORD accepted the prayer of the inhabitants of the land, and the epidemic was averted from Israel.