2 Samuel 24

1Again Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”Cross-references: Gen 45:5 · Gen 50:20 · Ex 7:3 · 1Sam 26:19 · 2Sam 12:11 · 2Sam 16:10 · +9 more

2The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people.”Cross-references: Deut 8:13 · Judg 20:1 · 2Sam 2:13 · 2Sam 3:10 · 2Sam 8:16 · 2Sam 17:11 · +8 more

3Joab said to the king, “Now may Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”Cross-references: Deut 1:11 · 2Sam 10:12 · 1Chr 21:3 · Ps 115:14 · Prov 14:28 · Isa 60:5

4Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.Cross-references: Ex 1:17 · 1Chr 21:4 · Eccl 8:4 · Acts 5:29

5They 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;Cross-references: Num 21:32 · Num 32:1 · Num 32:3 · Num 32:35 · Deut 2:36 · Josh 13:9 · +4 more

6then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon,Cross-references: Gen 10:15 · Gen 31:21 · Gen 31:47 · Num 32:1 · Num 32:39 · Josh 11:8 · +4 more

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 Beersheba.Cross-references: Gen 21:22 · Josh 11:3 · Josh 19:29 · Judg 3:3 · 2Sam 24:2

8So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

9Joab gave up the sum of the counting 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.Cross-references: Num 1:44 · 1Chr 21:5 · 1Chr 27:23

10David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”Cross-references: Deut 32:6 · 1Sam 13:13 · 1Sam 24:5 · 1Sam 26:21 · 2Sam 12:13 · 1Chr 21:8 · +14 more

11When David rose up in the morning, Yahweh’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,Cross-references: 1Sam 9:9 · 1Sam 22:5 · 1Chr 2:19 · 1Chr 29:29

12“Go and speak to David, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”Cross-references: Lev 26:41 · Lev 26:43 · 2Sam 12:9 · 2Sam 12:14 · 1Chr 21:10 · Job 5:17 · +3 more

13So Gad came to David, and told him, saying, “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 answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”Cross-references: Lev 26:16 · Lev 26:20 · Lev 26:25 · Lev 26:36 · Deut 28:22 · Deut 28:25 · +10 more

14David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into Yahweh’s hand, for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man’s hand.”Cross-references: Ex 34:6 · 1Sam 13:6 · 2Ki 6:15 · 2Ki 13:3 · 1Chr 21:13 · 2Chr 28:5 · +16 more

15So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.Cross-references: Num 16:46 · Num 25:9 · 1Sam 6:19 · 2Sam 24:2 · 1Chr 21:14 · 1Chr 27:4 · +4 more

16When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.Cross-references: Gen 6:6 · Gen 10:16 · Ex 9:28 · Ex 12:13 · Ex 12:23 · Ex 32:14 · +27 more

17David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, 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.”Cross-references: Gen 44:33 · 2Sam 24:10 · 1Ki 22:17 · 1Chr 21:16 · Job 7:20 · Job 42:6 · +9 more

18Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”Cross-references: 2Sam 24:11 · 1Chr 21:18

19David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded.Cross-references: Gen 6:22 · 1Chr 21:19 · 2Chr 20:20 · 2Chr 36:16 · Neh 9:26 · Heb 11:8

20Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.Cross-references: Gen 18:2 · Ruth 2:10 · 2Sam 9:8 · 1Chr 21:20

21Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”Cross-references: Gen 23:8 · Num 16:44 · Num 25:8 · 2Sam 21:3 · 2Sam 24:3 · 2Sam 24:18 · +3 more

22Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.Cross-references: Gen 23:11 · 1Sam 6:14 · 1Ki 19:21 · 1Chr 21:22

23All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May Yahweh your God accept you.”Cross-references: Job 42:8 · Ps 20:3 · Ps 45:16 · Isa 32:8 · Isa 60:7 · Ezek 20:40 · +4 more

24The king said to Araunah, “No, but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.Cross-references: Gen 23:13 · 1Chr 21:24 · 1Chr 22:1 · Mal 1:12 · Rom 12:17

25David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.Cross-references: Gen 8:20 · Gen 22:9 · 1Sam 7:9 · 1Sam 7:17 · 2Sam 21:14 · 2Sam 24:14 · +2 more