And again the anger of YHWH (יהוה) was kindled against Yisra'el, and he moved David against them to say:
Go, number Yisra'el and Yehudah.
For the king said to Yo'av the captain of the host, which [was] with him:
Go now through all the tribes of Yisra'el, from Dan even to Beer-Sheva, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.
And Yo'av said unto the king:
Now YHWH (יהוה) Eloheicha add unto the people,
how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my adon (אדן ) the king may see [it]:
but why doth my adon (אדן ) the king delight in this thing?
24:4 Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Yo'av, and against the captains of the host. And Yo'av and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Yisra'el.
24:5 And they passed over Yarden, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that [lieth] in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Yazer:
24:6 Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon,
24:7 And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Kenaanites: and they went out to the south of Yehudah, [even] to Beer-Sheva.
24:8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Yerushalayim at the end of nine months and twenty days.
24:9 And Yo'av gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Yisra'el eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Yehudah [were] five hundred thousand men.
24:10 And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto YHWH (יהוה), I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O YHWH (יהוה), take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
24:11 For when David was up in the morning,
Dvar YHWH (יהוה) came unto the Navi Gad, David's seer, saying:
Go and say unto David,
Thus saith YHWH (יהוה),
I offer thee three [things]; choose thee one of them, that I may [do it] unto thee.
24:13 So 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.
24:14 And David said unto Gad:
I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of YHWH (יהוה); for His mercies [are] great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
24:15 So YHWH (יהוה) sent a pestilence upon Yisra'el from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-Sheva seventy thousand men.
24:16 And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Yerushalayim to destroy it,
YHWH (יהוה) 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 YHWH (יהוה) was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Yevusite.
And David spake unto YHWH (יהוה) when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said:
Hinnei, 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.
24:18 And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him:
Go up, rear an altar unto YHWH (יהוה) in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Yevusite.
24:19 And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as YHWH (יהוה) commanded.
24:20 And 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.
And Araunah said,
Wherefore is my adon (אדן ) the king come to his servant?
And David said,
To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto YHWH (יהוה), that the plague may be stayed from the people.
And Araunah said unto David:
Let my adon (אדן ) 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.
All these [things] did Araunah, [as] a king, give unto the king.
And Araunah said unto the king:
The YHWH (יהוה) Eloheicha accept thee.
And the king said unto Araunah:
Nay; but I will surely buy [it] of thee at a price: neither will I offer Olot unto YHWH (יהוה) my Elohim (אלהים) of that which doth cost me nothing.
So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
24:25 And David built there an altar unto YHWH (יהוה), and offered Olot and Shelamin. So YHWH (יהוה) was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Yisra'el.