{"meta":{"source":"Prime Bible","sourceUrl":"https://primebible.com","license":"Public domain (translation text); see citation policy at /citation-policy","organization":"501(c)(3) nonprofit — EIN 41-2531951","canonicalUrl":"https://primebible.com/web/1-chronicles/21","llmTxt":"https://primebible.com/llms.txt","generatedAt":"2026-05-30T09:21:33.567Z"},"reference":{"translation":"WEB","book":"1 Chronicles","bookSlug":"1-chronicles","chapter":21,"testament":"OLD"},"navigation":{"previousChapter":20,"nextChapter":22,"totalChapters":29,"totalVerses":30},"verses":[{"verseNumber":1,"text":"Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel."},{"verseNumber":2,"text":"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.|"},{"verseNumber":3,"text":"Joab said, |May 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?|"},{"verseNumber":4,"text":"Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem."},{"verseNumber":5,"text":"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."},{"verseNumber":6,"text":"But he didn't count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab."},{"verseNumber":7,"text":"God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel."},{"verseNumber":8,"text":"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.|"},{"verseNumber":9,"text":"Yahweh spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,"},{"verseNumber":10,"text":"|Go and speak to David, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, |I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.|'|"},{"verseNumber":11,"text":"So Gad came to David, and said to him, |Thus says Yahweh, 'Take your choice:"},{"verseNumber":12,"text":"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.'|"},{"verseNumber":13,"text":"David said to Gad, |I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are very great. Let me not fall into the hand of man.|"},{"verseNumber":14,"text":"So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell."},{"verseNumber":15,"text":"God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, 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."},{"verseNumber":16,"text":"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."},{"verseNumber":17,"text":"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.|"},{"verseNumber":18,"text":"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."},{"verseNumber":19,"text":"David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh."},{"verseNumber":20,"text":"Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat."},{"verseNumber":21,"text":"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."},{"verseNumber":22,"text":"Then David said to Ornan, |Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build thereon an altar to Yahweh. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.|"},{"verseNumber":23,"text":"Ornan said to David, |Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.|"},{"verseNumber":24,"text":"King David said to Ornan, |No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering without cost.|"},{"verseNumber":25,"text":"So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place."},{"verseNumber":26,"text":"David built an altar to Yahweh there, 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."},{"verseNumber":27,"text":"Yahweh commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath."},{"verseNumber":28,"text":"At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there."},{"verseNumber":29,"text":"For the tabernacle of Yahweh, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon."},{"verseNumber":30,"text":"But David couldn't go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Yahweh."}],"citation":{"inline":"1 Chronicles 21 (WEB)","markdown":"[1 Chronicles 21](https://primebible.com/web/1-chronicles/21)","sbl":"Prime Bible. *The Bible.* WEB. https://primebible.com/web/1-chronicles/21 (accessed 2026-05-30)."}}