David's Sinful Census
Study note
Satan stirred up David to count the people of Israel. This was considered sinful because it showed pride and a reliance on military strength rather than trust in God. Even Joab, David's army commander, warned him against it, but David insisted. The count revealed over 1.1 million fighting men in Israel and 470,000 in Judah. Joab refused to count the tribes of Levi and Benjamin because he found the whole idea disgusting. Afterward, David realized his sin and asked God for forgiveness.
1 Satan turned against Israel. He talked David into counting Israel's people. And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
2 David ordered Joab and the army commanders, 'Go throughout the whole land, from Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north, and count everyone. Then come back and tell me the total number.' And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
3 But Joab protested, 'May the Lord multiply his people a hundred times over! My king, they all serve you already. Why would you want to do this? Why bring guilt on all of Israel?' And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
4 But the king insisted, overruling Joab. So Joab set out, traveled across the entire land, and returned to Jerusalem. Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
5 Joab reported the numbers to David: there were 1,100,000 fighting men in Israel and 470,000 in Judah. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
6 But Joab never counted the tribes of Levi and Benjamin. The king's order upset him greatly. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
7 God was not pleased with this census, so he brought punishment on Israel. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
8 David said to God, 'I have committed a terrible sin by doing this. Please forgive your servant's guilt. I have been exceedingly foolish.' And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
God Offers David Three Punishments
Study note
God sent the prophet Gad to David with a choice of three punishments: three years of famine, three months of being chased by enemies, or three days of a deadly plague. David chose to fall into God's hands rather than into human hands, trusting that God's mercy was great. God sent a plague on Israel, and 70,000 people died.
9 The Lord spoke to Gad, David's personal prophet: And the LORD spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 'Go and tell David that the Lord says: I am giving you three choices. Pick one, and I will carry it out.' Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
11 Gad went to David and said, 'The Lord has given you a decision to make. You must choose one of these options:' So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee
12 'Pick one of three: Three years of famine. Or three months of being chased by your foes. Or three days of a terrible plague. The Lord's angel will bring ruin across Israel. Think it over. Tell me what to say to the one who sent me.' Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
13 David answered Gad, 'This is an agonizing choice. Let me fall into the Lord's hands, because his mercy is enormous. But please do not let me fall into human hands.' And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and 70,000 Israelites died. So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
The Angel at the Threshing Floor
Study note
God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but then showed mercy and told the angel to stop. The angel stood at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, a flat area on a hilltop used for separating grain. David looked up and saw the angel standing between earth and heaven with a drawn sword stretched over Jerusalem. David and the elders fell on their faces in sackcloth, a rough fabric worn as a sign of mourning and repentance. David begged God to punish him alone and spare the innocent people.
15 God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But just as the angel was about to destroy it, the Lord looked down and had compassion. He told the angel, 'That is enough! Stop now.' At that moment, the angel of the Lord was standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, holding a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. David and the elders put on rough sackcloth and fell face-first on the ground. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
17 David cried out to God, 'I am the one who gave the order to count the people! I am the guilty one -- I am the one who sinned! But these people are innocent like sheep. What have they done wrong? Lord my God, please direct your punishment at me and my family, but stop this plague against your people!' And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
David Buys the Threshing Floor and Builds an Altar
Study note
The angel told David through the prophet Gad to build an altar at Ornan's threshing floor. Ornan, who had seen the angel and was threshing wheat, offered to give David everything for free -- the land, the oxen for sacrifice, and the wheat. But David insisted on paying the full price of 600 gold shekels, saying he would not offer God something that cost him nothing. When David offered his sacrifice, God answered by sending fire from heaven onto the altar. Then God commanded the angel to put away his sword.
18 The angel of the Lord told the prophet Gad to give David a message. David should go to the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite and build an altar to the Lord there. Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 David went to do what Gad had told him, following the Lord's instructions. And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.
20 Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned around and saw the angel. His four sons who were with him ran and hid. And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 When David approached, Ornan looked up and saw him. He immediately left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face on the ground. And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22 David said to Ornan, 'Sell me this threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord here. Let me pay the full price for it, so the plague against the people will stop.' Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.
23 Ornan replied, 'Take it! My king can do whatever he thinks is best. Here, take my oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing boards for firewood, and the wheat for a grain offering. I will give you everything.' And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all.
24 But King David insisted, 'No, I must pay you the full price. I refuse to take what belongs to you and offer it to the Lord. I will not present a burnt offering that cost me nothing.' And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.
25 So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold for the site. So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
26 David built an altar to the Lord there and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called out to the Lord, and the Lord answered by sending fire from heaven onto the altar. And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then the Lord told the angel to put his sword away. And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.
The Significance of the Threshing Floor
Study note
David recognized that this was a sanctuary because God had answered him there. The original tabernacle that Moses had built was still at Gibeon, but David was too afraid of the angel's sword to go there. So he continued to sacrifice at Ornan's threshing floor. This location on Mount Moriah would become the site where Solomon would later build the great temple of God.
28 David saw that the Lord had answered him at Ornan's threshing floor. So he kept offering there. At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29 Moses had made the Lord's tent in the desert. It was still at the worship center in Gibeon. The main altar for burnt offerings was there too. For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.
30 But David could not go there to worship, because he was terrified of the angel's sword. But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.