Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel, so he made David decide to take a census.
1
Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
2 David gave orders to Joab and the other officers, "Go through Israel, from one end of the country to the other, and count the people. I want to know how many there are."
2
David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them.
3 Joab answered, "May the Lord make the people of Israel a hundred times more numerous than they are now! Your Majesty, they are all your servants. Why do you want to do this and make the whole nation guilty?"
3
Joab said, Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, aren't they all my lord's servants? why does my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?
4 But the king made Joab obey the order. Joab went out, traveled through the whole country of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem.
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Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
5 He reported to King David the total number of men capable of military service: 1,100,000 in Israel and 470,000 in Judah.
5
Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword.
6 Because Joab disapproved of the king's command, he did not take any census of the tribes of Levi and Benjamin.
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But he didn't count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
7 God was displeased with what had been done, so he punished Israel.
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God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.
8 David said to God, "I have committed a terrible sin in doing this! Please forgive me. I have acted foolishly."
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David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 Then the Lord said to Gad, David's prophet,
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Yahweh spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 "Go and tell David that I am giving him three choices. I will do whichever he chooses."
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Go and speak to David, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you.
11 Gad went to David, told him what the Lord had said, and asked, "Which is it to be?
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So Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Take which you will:
12 Three years of famine? Or three months of running away from the armies of your enemies? Or three days during which the Lord attacks you with his sword and sends an epidemic on your land, using his angel to bring death throughout Israel? What answer shall I give the Lord?"
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either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Yahweh destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.
13 David replied to Gad, "I am in a desperate situation! But I don't want to be punished by people. Let the Lord himself be the one to punish me, because he is merciful."
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David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Yahweh; for very great are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
14 So the Lord sent an epidemic on the people of Israel, and seventy thousand of them died.
14
So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15 Then he sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but he changed his mind and said to the angel, "Stop! That's enough!" The angel was standing by the threshing place of Araunah, a Jebusite.
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God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay your hand. The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 David saw the angel standing in midair, holding his sword in his hand, ready to destroy Jerusalem. Then David and the leaders of the people - all of whom were wearing sackcloth - bowed low, with their faces touching the ground.
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David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17 David prayed, "O God, I am the one who did wrong. I am the one who ordered the census. What have these poor people done? Lord, my God, punish me and my family, and spare your people."
17
David said to God, Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.
18 The angel of the Lord told Gad to command David to go and build an altar to the Lord at Araunah's threshing place.
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Then the angel of Yahweh commanded Gad to tell David, that David should go up, and raise an altar to Yahweh in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 David obeyed the Lord's command and went, as Gad had told him to.
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David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh.
20 There at the threshing place Araunah and his four sons were threshing wheat, and when they saw the angel, the sons ran and hid.
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Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 As soon as Araunah saw King David approaching, he left the threshing place and bowed low, with his face touching the ground.
21
As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22 David said to him, "Sell me your threshing place, so that I can build an altar to the Lord, to stop the epidemic. I'll give you the full price."
22
Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build thereon an altar to Yahweh: for the full price shall you give it me, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
23 "Take it, Your Majesty," Araunah said, "and do whatever you wish. Here are these oxen to burn as an offering on the altar, and here are the threshing boards to use as fuel, and wheat to give as an offering. I give it all to you."
23
Ornan said to David, Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: behold, I give [you] the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering; I give it all.
24 But the king answered, "No, I will pay you the full price. I will not give as an offering to the Lord something that belongs to you, something that costs me nothing."
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King David said to Ornan, No; but I will most assuredly buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is your for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt-offering without cost.
25 And he paid Araunah six hundred gold coins for the threshing place.
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So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
26 He built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He prayed, and the Lord answered him by sending fire from heaven to burn the sacrifices on the altar.
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David built there an altar to Yahweh, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
27 The Lord told the angel to put his sword away, and the angel obeyed.
27
Yahweh commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath of it.
28 David saw by this that the Lord had answered his prayer, so he offered sacrifices on the altar at Araunah's threshing place.
28
At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29 The Tent of the Lord's presence which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar on which sacrifices were burned were still at the place of worship at Gibeon at this time;
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For the tent of Yahweh, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
30 but David was not able to go there to worship God, because he was afraid of the sword of the Lord's angel.
30
But David couldn't go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Yahweh.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.