2 Samuel 24King James Version
David takes a census of Israel, which angers the Lord. The prophet Gad gives him three choices of punishment. David chooses the hand of God rather than the hand of man. A plague kills seventy thousand. David sees the angel of the Lord with his sword drawn over Jerusalem and begs for mercy. He buys a threshing floor from a man named Araunah, insisting on paying full price, and builds an altar there. On that threshing floor the temple will one day be built.
God's anger leads David to conduct a census of Israel and Judah. Joab protests; David insists. The count comes back: 800,000 men of war in Israel, 500,000 in Judah. David's conscience immediately strikes him. God offers him three choices of punishment: three years of famine, three months of flight from enemies, or three days of plague. David chooses to fall into God's hands rather than men's. Seventy thousand die. The plague stops at the threshing floor of Araunah. David buys it, builds an altar, and the plague ends. That site becomes the future temple mount.
The book closes with one more failure, one more confession, and one more act of costly worship. The site where David refuses a gift and insists on paying full price becomes where God's house will be built.
24: "And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing." The most important plot of land in Jewish history is purchased rather than received free, because David insists worship must cost something.
Around 970 BC. The threshing floor of Araunah sat on the ridge north of the City of David, later called Mount Moriah, later the Temple Mount. Araunah was a Jebusite, a remnant of the pre-Israelite population of Jerusalem. His offer to give the king oxen, wood, and threshing instruments for free is generous and genuine. David pays full price. Whatever the land cost, it was cheap for what it became.
David, who initiates the census, repents immediately, and chooses God's mercy over man's; Joab, who resists the census from the start and is proven right; Gad the prophet, who delivers the three options; Araunah the Jebusite, who offers everything freely and is refused; the seventy thousand who die in the plague.
The census itself is mysterious: why was it wrong? The text never fully explains. Ancient Israel associated counting fighting men with pride in military strength rather than trust in God. Whatever the precise sin, the consequence is immediate and devastating, and David's repentance is also immediate. The threshing floor of Araunah, purchased here, is identified in Chronicles as the site where Solomon will build the Temple. The book ends on the spot where the next act of the story begins.
For when you make a mistake you knew was a mistake, the conviction arrives before anyone tells you, and the question is what you do next. David does not argue or negotiate. He confesses, accepts the judgment, and goes to the rock to build an altar.
1And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
2For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.
3And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?
4Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.
5And they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer:
6Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon,
7And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.
8So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
10And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
11For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
12Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
13So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
14And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
15So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
16And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.
17And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house.
18And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.
19And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.
20And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.
21And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
22And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.
23All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.
24And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.