Scriptures

2 Samuel chapter .xxiiij.

¶ And the LORD was wroth again against Israel, and stirred up David against them saying: go and number both Israel and Iuda. And forthwith the king said to Ioab the captain of his Host: go abroad I pray thee, thorowout all the tribes of Israel, even from Dan to Bersabe, and number the people that I may know the number of them. And Ioab said unto the king: I beseech that the LORD thy God make the people as many more as they be: yea and an hundredth times so many more, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see them. But how is it that my lord the king hath a lust in this thing? Notwithstanding the king's words prevailed against Ioab and against all the captains of the Host. Then Ioab and the captains of the Host went out from the king, to view the people of Israel. And they passed over Iordan and pitched in Aroer on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the valley of Gad and so forth to Iazer. And then they went to Gilead and to the nether land of Hodesi, and from thence to Dan Iaan, and about to Sidon, and came to the strong town of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hevites and of the Cananites, and then went out to the South of Iuda even to Bersabe. And so when they had been abroad thorowout all the land they returned to Ierusalem again at the end of nine months and twenty days. And then Ioab delivered up the reckoning of the number of the people unto the king. And there were found in Israel nine hundredth thousand men of might that drew swords. And the men of Iuda were five hundredth thousand men.
¶ And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And he said unto the LORD: I have sinned exceedingly in that I have done. And now LORD take away the trespass of thy servant: for I have done foolishly. And when David was up in a morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad David's sear, saying: go and say unto David, thus sayeth the LORD: I offer thee three things, choose which of them I shall do to thee. And Gad came to David and shewed him and said unto him: whether wilt thou have seven years hunger in thy land, or that thou flee three months before thine enemies and they following thee, or that there be three days pestilence in thy land. Now understand and see, what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. Then said David unto Gad: I am in a marvellous strait. But let me fall I pray thee, into the hands of the LORD, for much is his mercy, and let me not fall into the hands of men. And the LORD sent a pestilence in Israel from the morning unto the end of the time appointed. And there died of the people between Dan and Bersabe seventy thousand men. And when the Angel stretched out his hand unto Ierusalem to have destroyed it, the LORD had compassion to do that evil, and said to the Angel that destroyed the people: it is sufficient: let thine hand cease. And the Angel was at the threshing place of Areunah the Iebusite. Then spake David unto the LORD when he saw the Angel that smote the people, and said: lo, it is I that have sinned, and I that have done wickedly. But these sheep what have they done? let I pray thee thine hand be on me and on my father's house.
¶ And Gad came the same day to David and said unto him: go up and rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing floor of Areunah the Iebusite. And David according to the saying of Gad went up as the LORD commanded. And when Areunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out: and bowed himself to the king flat on his face to the ground, and said: wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said: to buy the threshing floor of thee, for to make an altar unto the LORD that the plague may cease from the people. And Areunah said unto the king: let my lord the king take and offer what seemeth him good in his eyes: Behold oxen for sacrifice, and sleds and the other instruments of the oxen for wood. And Areunah the king's friend gave all to the king, and said moreover unto the king: the LORD: the LORD thy God accept thee. But the king said unto Areunah: not so, but I will buy it of thee at a price, and will not offer sacrifice unto the LORD my God that shall cost me nought. And so David bought the threshing floor, and the oxen for fifty sicles of silver. And David built there an altar unto the LORD and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. And so the LORD was agreed with the land. And the plague ceased from Israel.

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