1 Chronicles 21
An Angel Stayed His Hand at a Threshing Floor
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David Numbers Israel
21:1The devil stood in Israel and stirred David to number Israel.
21:2King David said to Joab and the rulers of the force, “Go, number Israel from Bersabee to Dan, and bring the report to me, so that I may know their number.”
21:3Joab said, “May the Lord add to His people a hundredfold as many as they are, with my lord the king’s eyes seeing it! All are my lord’s servants. Why does my lord seek this? Let it not become sin for Israel!”
21:4The king’s word prevailed over Joab. Joab went out, passed through all Israel’s territory, and came to Jerusalem.
21:5Joab gave David the number of the people’s inspection: all Israel was a million and a hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah was four hundred eighty thousand men who drew the sword.
21:6He did not number Levi and Benjamin among them, because the king’s word had overpowered Joab.
The Lord Strikes Israel
21:7This matter appeared evil before God, and He struck Israel.
21:8David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I did this thing. Now, please remove Your servant’s wickedness, for I have become exceedingly foolish.”
The Three Choices Set Before David
21:9The Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,
21:10“Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: I am raising three things against you. Choose one of them for yourself, and I will do it to you.’”
21:11Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Choose for yourself
21:12either three years of famine, or three months of your fleeing before your enemies and your enemies’ sword destroying, or three days of the Lord’s sword and death in the land, with the Lord’s angel destroying throughout Israel’s inheritance. Now consider what word I should answer Him who sent me.”
21:13David said to Gad, “All three press me very hard. I will indeed fall into the Lord’s hands, for His compassions are very many; but I will certainly not fall into human hands.”
21:14The Lord sent death upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
The Angel at the Threshing Floor of Orna
21:15God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he destroyed, the Lord saw and relented concerning the calamity. He said to the destroying angel, “Let it be enough for you! Relax your hand.” The Lord’s angel was standing at the threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite.
21:16David lifted his eyes and saw the Lord’s angel standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand, stretched over Jerusalem. David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
21:17David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the people to be numbered? I am the one who sinned; in doing evil I did evil. But these sheep—what have they done? Lord God, let Your hand be upon me and my father’s house, and not upon Your people for destruction, Lord.”
David Buys the Threshing Floor
21:18The Lord’s angel told Gad to tell David to go up and establish an altar to the Lord at the threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite.
21:19David went up according to Gad’s word, which he had spoken in the Lord’s name.
21:20Orna turned and saw the king, and his four sons with him were methachabin. Orna was threshing wheat.
21:21David came to Ornan. Orna came out from the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground.
21:22David said to Orna, “Give me your threshing-floor site, and I will build an altar to the Lord on it. Give it to me for its worth in silver, and the plague will cease from the people.”
21:23Orna said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good before him. Look, I give the calves for a whole burnt offering, the plow and the wagons for wood, and the grain for a sacrifice. I give everything.”
21:24King David said to Orna, “No! I will certainly buy it for its worth in silver. I will certainly not take what is yours for the Lord, to offer a whole burnt offering to the Lord for nothing.”
21:25David gave Orna at his site six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
Fire from Heaven upon the Altar
21:26David built an altar there to the Lord and offered whole burnt offerings and a deliverance offering. He cried to the Lord, and He answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of whole burnt offering, and consumed the whole burnt offering.
21:27The Lord spoke to the angel, and he put the sword into its sheath.
21:28At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.
21:29The Lord’s tent, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of whole burnt offerings were at that time in Bama at Gabaon.
21:30David could not go before it to seek God, because he hastened away from the sword of the Lord’s angel.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.