1And again the anger of Yehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah. 2And the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number the people, that I may know the sum of the people. 3And Joab said to the king, Now may Yehovah your God add to the people, however many they may be, a hundredfold; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king delight in this thing? 4Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. 5And they passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer: 6then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan, and around to Sidon, 7and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beer-sheba. 8So when they had gone to and fro through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. 10And David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to Yehovah, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, O Yehovah, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly. 11And when David rose up in the morning, the word of Yehovah came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12Go and speak to David, Thus says Yehovah, I offer you three things: choose one of them, that I may do it to you. 13So 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 flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? now take counsel, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me. 14And David said to Gad, I am in great distress: let us fall now into the hand of Yehovah; for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man. 15So Yehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. 16And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yehovah repented of the evil, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay your hand. And the angel of Yehovah was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17And David spoke to Yehovah when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, Look, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house. 18And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, erect an altar to Yehovah in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19And David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yehovah commanded. 20And Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing-floor from you, to build an altar to Yehovah, that the plague may be averted from the people. 22And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him: behold, the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood: 23all this, O king, does Araunah give to the king. And Araunah said to the king, May Yehovah your God accept you. 24And the king said to Araunah, No; but I will truly buy it from you at a price; nor will I offer burnt-offerings to Yehovah my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25And David built there an altar to Yehovah, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. So Yehovah was entreated for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.