David Numbers Israel and Judah

241 Again the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and moving David against them, he said, Go, take the number of Israel and Judah. 2 And the king said to Joab and the captains of the army, who were with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, and have all the people numbered, so that I may be certain of the number of the people. 3 And Joab said to the king, Whatever the number of the people, may the Lord make it a hundred times as much, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king take pleasure in doing this thing? 4 But the king's order was stronger than Joab and the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the king, to take the number of the children of Israel. 5 And they went over Jordan, and starting from Aroer, from the town which is in the middle of the valley, they went in the direction of the Gadites, and on to Jazer; 6 Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of the Hittites under Hermon; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they came round to Zidon, 7 And to the walled town of Tyre, and to all the towns of the Hivites and the Canaanites: and they went out to the South of Judah at Beer-sheba. 8 So after going through all the land in every direction, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave the king the number of all the people: there were in Israel eight hundred thousand fighting men able to take up arms; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand.

10 And after the people had been numbered, David's heart was troubled. And David said to the Lord, Great has been my sin in doing this; but now, O Lord, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly 11 And David got up in the morning; now the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 12 Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, and I will do it to you. 13 So Gad came to David, and gave him word of this and said to him, Are there to be three years when there is not enough food in your land? or will you go in flight from your haters for three months, while they go after you? or will you have three days of violent disease in your land? take thought and say what answer I am to give to him who sent me. 14 And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let us come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men. 15 So David made selection of the disease; and the time was the days of the grain-cutting, when the disease came among the people, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan as far as Beer-sheba. 16 And when the hand of the angel was stretched out in the direction of Jerusalem, for its destruction, the Lord had regret for the evil, and said to the angel who was sending destruction on the people, It is enough; do no more. And the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 And when David saw the angel who was causing the destruction of the people, he said to the Lord, Truly, the sin is mine; I have done wrong: but these are only sheep; what have they done? let your hand be against me and against my family.

18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, Go up, and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 So David went up, as Gad had said and as the Lord had given orders. 20 And Araunah, looking out, saw the king and his servants coming to him: and Araunah went out, and went down on his face to the earth before the king. 21 And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To give you a price for your grain-floor, so that I may put up an altar to the Lord, and the disease may be stopped among the people. 22 And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take whatever seems right to him, and make an offering of it: see, here are the oxen for the burned offering, and the grain-cleaning instruments and the ox-yokes for wood: 23 All this does the servant of my lord the king give to the king. And Araunah said, May the Lord your God be pleased with your offering! 24 And the king said to Araunah, No, but I will give you a price for it; I will not give to the Lord my God burned offerings for which I have given nothing. So David got the grain-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And there David put up an altar to the Lord, making burned offerings and peace-offerings. So the Lord gave ear to his prayer for the land, and the disease came to an end in Israel.

David Numbers Israel and Judah

211 Now Satan, designing evil against Israel, put into David's mind the impulse to take the number of Israel. 2 And David said to Joab and the captains of the people, Now let all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, be numbered; and give me word so that I may be certain of their number. 3 And Joab said, May the Lord make his people a hundred times more in number than they are; but, my lord king, are they not all my lord's servants? why would my lord have this done? why will he become a cause of sin to Israel? 4 But the king's word was stronger than Joab's. So Joab went out and went through all Israel and came to Jerusalem. 5 And Joab gave David the number of all the people; all the men of Israel, able to take up arms, were one million, one hundred thousand men; and those of Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men, able to take up arms. 6 But Levi and Benjamin were not numbered among them, for Joab was disgusted with the king's order.

7 And God was not pleased with this thing; so he sent punishment on Israel. 8 Then David said to God, Great has been my sin in doing this; but now, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. 9 Then the word of the Lord came to Gad, David's seer, saying, 10 Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, so that I may do it to you. 11 So Gad came to David and said to him, The Lord says, Take whichever you will: 12 Three years when there will not be enough food; or three months of war, when you will go in flight before your haters, being in great danger of the sword; or three days of the sword of the Lord, disease in the land, and the angel of the Lord taking destruction through all the land of Israel. Now give thought to the answer I am to take back to him who sent me. 13 And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let me come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men. 14 So the Lord sent disease on Israel, causing the death of seventy thousand men. 15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem for its destruction: and when he was about to do so, the Lord saw, and had regret for the evil, and said to the angel of destruction, It is enough; do no more. Now the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 And David, lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord there between earth and heaven, with an uncovered sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the responsible men, clothed in haircloth, went down on their faces. 17 And David said to God, Was it not I who gave the order for the people to be numbered? It is I who have done the sin and the great wrong; but these are only sheep; what have they done? let your hand, O Lord God, be lifted up against me and against my family, but not against your people to send disease on them.

18 Then the angel of the Lord gave orders to Gad to say to David that he was to go and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 And David went up, as Gad had said in the name of the Lord. 20 And Ornan, turning back, saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him went to a secret place. Now Ornan was crushing his grain. 21 And when David came, Ornan, looking, saw him, and came out from the grain-floor and went down on his face to the earth before him. 22 Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place where this grain-floor is, so that I may put up an altar here to the Lord: let me have it for its full price; so that this disease may be stopped among the people. 23 And Ornan said to David, Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems right to him. See, I give you the oxen for burned offerings and the grain-cleaning instruments for fire-wood, and the grain for the meal offering; I give it all. 24 And King David said to Ornan, No; I will certainly give you the full price for it, because I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or give a burned offering without payment. 25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. 26 And David put up an altar there to the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings with prayers to the Lord; and he gave him an answer from heaven, sending fire on the altar of burned offering. 27 Then the Lord gave orders to the angel, and he put back his sword into its cover.

The Site for the Temple

28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had given him an answer on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made an offering there. 29 For the House of the Lord, which Moses had made in the waste land, and the altar of burned offerings, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David was not able to go before it to get directions from the Lord, so great was his fear of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

221 Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar for Israel's burned offerings.

David's Preparation for the Temple

2 And David gave orders to get together all the men from strange lands who were in the land of Israel; and he put stone-cutters to work, cutting stones for building the house of God. 3 And he got together a great store of iron, for the nails for the doors and for the joins; and brass, more in weight than might be measured; 4 And cedar-trees without number, for the Zidonians and the men of Tyre came with a great amount of cedar-trees for David. 5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and untested, and the house which is to be put up for the Lord is to be very great, a thing of wonder and glory through all countries; so I will make ready what is needed for it. So David got ready a great store of material before his death.

6 Then he sent for his son Solomon, and gave him orders for the building of a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. 7 And David said to Solomon, My son, it was my desire to put up a house for the name of the Lord my God. 8 But the word of the Lord came to me saying, You have taken lives without number and made great wars; I will not let you be the builder of a house for my name, because of the lives you have taken on the earth before my eyes. 9 But you will have a son who will be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from wars on every side. His name will be Solomon, and in his time I will give Israel peace and quiet; 10 He will be the builder of a house for my name; he will be to me a son, and I will be to him a father; and I will make the seat of his rule over Israel certain for ever. 11 Now, my son, may the Lord be with you; and may you do well, and put up the house of the Lord your God, as he has said of you. 12 Only may the Lord give you wisdom, and knowledge of his orders for Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. 13 And all will go well for you, if you take care to keep the laws and the rules which the Lord gave to Moses for Israel: be strong and take heart; have no fear and do not be troubled. 14 Now see, poor though I am, I have got ready for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver; and a weight of brass and iron greater than may be measured; and wood and stone have I made ready, and you may put more to it. 15 And you have a great number of workmen, cutters and workers of stone and wood, and experts in every sort of work, 16 In gold and silver and brass and iron more than may be numbered. Up! then, and to work; and may the Lord be with you.

17 Then David gave orders to all the chiefs of Israel to give their help to Solomon his son, saying, 18 Is not the Lord your God with you? and has he not given you rest on every side? for the Lord has given the people of the land into my hands, and the land is overcome before the Lord and before his people. 19 Now give your heart and soul to the worship of the Lord your God; and get to work on the building of the holy place of the Lord God, so that you may put the ark of the Lord's agreement and the holy vessels of God in the house which is to be made for the name of the Lord.

Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death

301 I will give you praise and honour, O Lord, because through you I have been lifted up; you have not given my haters cause to be glad over me. 2 O Lord my God, I sent up my cry to you, and you have made me well. 3 O Lord, you have made my soul come again from the underworld: you have given me life and kept me from going down among the dead. 4 Make songs to the Lord, O you saints of his, and give praise to his holy name. 5 For his wrath is only for a minute; in his grace there is life; weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

6 When things went well for me I said, I will never be moved. 7 Lord, by your grace you have kept my mountain strong: when your face was turned from me I was troubled. 8 My voice went up to you, O Lord; I made my prayer to the Lord. 9 What profit is there in my blood if I go down into the underworld? will the dust give you praise, or be a witness to your help? 10 Give ear to me, O Lord, and have mercy on me: Lord, be my helper. 11 By you my sorrow is turned into dancing; you have taken away my clothing of grief, and given me robes of joy; 12 So that my glory may make songs of praise to you and not be quiet. O Lord my God, I will give you praise for ever.