1 Chronicles 21
Satan stood up against Israel, and moved Dawud to number Israel. 2Dawud said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them. 3Joab said, Allah make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel? 4Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. 5Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to Dawud. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword. 6But he did not count Levi and Binyamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab. 7God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel. 8Dawud said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly. 9Allah spoke to Gad, Dawud's seer, saying, 10Go and speak to Dawud, saying, Thus says Allah, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you. 11So Gad came to Dawud, and said to him, Thus says Allah, Take which you will: 12either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Allah, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Allah destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me. 13Dawud said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Allah; for very great are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man. 14So Allah sent a pestilence on Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 15God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, Allah saw, and he relented from doing harm, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay your hand. The angel of Allah was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16Dawud lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Allah standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then Dawud and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17Dawud said to God, Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Allah my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued. 18Then the angel of Allah commanded Gad to tell Dawud, that Dawud should go up, and raise an altar to Allah in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19Dawud went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Allah. 20Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. 21As Dawud came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw Dawud, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to Dawud with his face to the ground. 22Then Dawud said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build thereon an altar to Allah: for the full price shall you give it me, that the plague may be stayed from the people. 23Ornan said to Dawud, Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: behold, I give you the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering; I give it all. 24King Dawud said to Ornan, No; but I will most assuredly buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is your for Allah, nor offer a burnt-offering without cost. 25So Dawud gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. 26Dawud built there an altar to Allah, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings, and called on Allah; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering. 27Allah commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath. 28At that time, when Dawud saw that Allah had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 29For the tent of Allah, which Musa made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. 30But Dawud could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Allah.