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          DASV: 2 Samuel 24    

1 Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he
incited David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah."
2 The king said to Joab and the commanders of the army who were
with him, "Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan
to Beersheba, and number the people, so that I may know
how many people there are."
3 But Joab replied to the king, "Now the LORD your God
add to the people a hundred times as many as they are now,
and right before the eyes of my lord the king, but why
does my lord the king want to do this?"
4 The king's word however overruled Joab and the commanders
of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went
out from the presence of the king, to number the people
of Israel.

5 They passed over the Jordan, and camped in Aroer, on the
south side of the town that is in the middle of the valley
toward Gad, then on to Jazer.
6 Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi,
proceeding to Dan-jaan, and around to Sidon.
7 Then they came to the fortress of Tyre, and to all the
towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Then they went on
to the Negev of Judah, as far as Beersheba.
8 After nine months and twenty days of having gone through
all the land, they returned to Jerusalem.

9 Joab reported the total number of the people to the king.
There were 800,000 valiant warriors who drew the sword in
Israel, and 500,000 in Judah.
10 But David's heart felt guilty after he had numbered the
people. So David confesed to the LORD, "I have sinned
greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please
remove the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted
very foolishly."

11 When David got up in the morning, the word of the LORD
came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
12 "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says, "I am
offering you three options. Choose one of them, that I may
do it to you."'"
13 So Gad came to David and told him, "Shall seven years of
famine come on you in your land? Or will you flee for three
months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall
there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now think
about it and decide what answer I should bring back to him
who sent me."
14 David said to Gad, "I am in quite a quandary. Let us
fall now into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are great.
Don't let me not fall into the hand of man."
15 So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning
even to the appointed time. There were 70,000 people who
died from Dan to Beersheba.

16 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to
destroy it, the LORD repented of the calamity, and told the
angel who was destroying the people, "That's enough! Pull
back your hand." The angel of LORD was by the threshing
floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 David pleaded with the LORD when he saw the angel striking
down the people, "I alone am the one who sinned and have done
this wickedness. But these sheep, what have they done?
Please let your hand of judgment be on me and my father's
house."

18 Then Gad came that day to David, and said to him, "Go up and
build an altar to the LORD at the threshing floor of Araunah
the Jebusite."
19 So David went up just as the LORD had instructed through Gad.
20 Now Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants
coming toward him. Araunah went out, and bowed himself before
the king with his face to the ground.
21 Then Araunah asked, "Why has my lord the king come to his
servant?" David replied, "To buy your threshing floor from you,
to build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be
averted from the people."
22 Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer
up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for the
burnt offering, and threshing sledges and yokes from the
oxen for the wood.
23 All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king." Araunah
continued speaking to the king, "The LORD your God accept you."
24 The king responded to Araunah, "No, but I insist on buying
it from you. For I will not offer burnt offerings to the
LORD my God that cost me nothing." So David bought the
threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25 There David built an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD answered the
prayers for the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

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