2 And the king said to Joab the General of his army: Walk through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Bersabee, and number ye the people, that I may know the number thereof.📜💬📚

3 And Joab said to the king: Our Lord thy God increase thy people, as much more as now it is, and again multiply it an hundred fold in the sight of my lord the king: but what meaneth my lord the king by this kind of thing?📜💬📚

4 Howbeit the king's word more prevailed than the words of Joab, and of the chief of the army: and Joab went forth, and the captains of the soldiers from the face of the king, to number the people of Israel.📜💬📚

5 And when they had passed Jordan, they came into Aroer to the right hand of the city, which is in the Vale of Gad.📜💬📚

6 And by Jazer they passed into Galaad, and into the lower country of Hodsi, and they came into the woody country of Dan. And going about near Sidon,📜💬📚

7 they passed nigh to the walls of Tyre, and all the land of the Heveite, and the Chanaanite, and they came to the south of Juda into Bersabee:📜💬📚

8 and having viewed the whole land, after nine months and twenty days, they were come to Jerusalem.📜💬📚

9 Joab therefore gave the number of the description of the people to the king, and there were found of Israel eight hundred thousand strong me, that could draw sword: and of Juda five hundred thousand fighting men.📜💬📚

Judgment for David's Sin

10 But David's heart struck him, after the people was numbered: and David said to our Lord: I have sinned very much in this fact: but I pray the Lord to transfer the iniquity of thy servant, because I have done exceeding foolishly.📜💬📚

11 David therefore arose in the morning, and the word of our Lord was made to Gad the Prophet and Seer of David, saying:📜💬📚

12 Go, and speak to David: Thus saith our Lord: Choice is given thee of three things, choose one of them which thou wilt, that I may do it to thee.📜💬📚

13 And when Gad was come to David, he told him, saying: Either famine shall come to thee seven years in thy land: or three months thou shalt fly thy adversaries, and they shall pursue thee: or certes three days the pestilence shall be in thy land. Now therefore deliberate, and see what word I shall answer to him that sent me.📜💬📚

14 And David said to Gad: I am distressed exceedingly: but it is better that I fall into the hands of our Lord (for his mercies be many) than into the hands of men.📜💬📚

A Plague on Israel

15 And our Lord sent the pestilence in Israel, from morning unto the time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan to Bersabee seventy thousand men.📜💬📚

16 And when the Angel of our Lord had stretched forth his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, our Lord had pity upon the affliction, and said to the Angel that struck the people: It is sufficient: now hold thy hand: and the Angel of our Lord was beside the floor of Areuna the Jebusite.📜💬📚

17 And David said to our Lord when he saw the Angel striking the people: I am he that have sinned, I have done wickedly: these that are the sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I beseech thee, be turned against my father's house.📜💬📚

David Builds an Altar

18 And Gad came to David in that day, and said to him: Go up, and build an altar to our Lord in the floor of Areuna the Jebusite.📜💬📚

19 And David went up according to the word of Gad, which our Lord had commanded him.📜💬📚

20 And Areuna looking, perceived the king and his servants to come towards him.📜💬📚

21 And going forth he adored the king with his face bowing to the earth, and said: What is the cause that my lord the king cometh to his servant? To whom David said: That I may buy of thee the floor, and build an altar to our Lord, & the slaughter may cease which rageth among the people.📜💬📚

22 And Areuna said to David: Let my lord the king take, and offer, as it pleaseth him: thou hast the oxen for holocaust, and the wain, and the yokes of the oxen for provision of wood.📜💬📚

23 Areuna gave all things to the king: and Areuna said to the king: The Lord thy God receive thy vow.📜💬📚

24 To whom the king answering, said: Not so as thou wilt, but I will buy it of thee at a price, and I will not offer to our Lord my God holocausts given gratis. David therefore bought the floor, and the oxen, for fifty sicles of silver:📜💬📚

25 and David built there an altar to our Lord, and offered holocausts and pacifics: and our Lord became merciful to the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.📜💬📚