1 Chronicles 21

All 30 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1Satan turned against Israel and stirred up David to take a census of the people.
2. 2David told Joab and the other leaders, "Go and count everyone in Israel, from Beersheba all the way to Dan. Then report the total back to me so I know how many there are."
3. 3Joab replied, "May the LORD multiply his people a hundred times over! But my lord the king — aren't they all your servants already? Why do you want this? Why would you bring guilt on Israel?"
4. 4But the king overruled Joab. So Joab left and traveled throughout all of Israel, then returned to Jerusalem.
5. 5Joab presented the census results to David. In all of Israel there were 1,100,000 men who could fight, and in Judah there were 470,000 fighting men.
6. 6But Joab didn't include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in the count, because the king's order disgusted him.
7. 7God was displeased with what David had done, so he struck Israel.
8. 8David said to God, "I have sinned terribly by doing this. Please take away your servant's guilt — I have been incredibly foolish."
9. 9The LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10. 10"Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I'm giving you 3 options. Pick one, and I will carry it out.'"
11. 11So Gad went to David and said, "This is what the LORD says — choose one of these:
12. 123 years of famine, or 3 months of being crushed by your enemies as their swords cut you down, or 3 days of plague across the land with the angel of the LORD bringing destruction throughout all of Israel. Think it over and tell me what answer to bring back to the one who sent me."
13. 13David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Let me fall now into the hand of the LORD, for very great are his mercies. But let me not fall into the hand of man."
14. 14So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and 70,000 men died.
15. 15God also sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was carrying out the destruction, the LORD looked down and repented of the evil. He said to the destroying angel, "Enough! Pull back your hand." At that moment, the angel of the LORD was standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16. 16David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD hovering between earth and sky, holding a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. David and the elders, all wearing sackcloth, fell facedown on the ground.
17. 17David cried out to God, "Wasn't I the one who ordered the census? I'm the one who sinned! I'm the one who did this evil! But these people — they're like sheep. What did they do wrong? Please, LORD my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but not on your people. Don't let them suffer this plague."
18. 18Then the angel of the LORD told Gad to instruct David to go and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19. 19So David went, obeying the message Gad had spoken in the LORD's name.
20. 20Ornan turned around and saw the angel. His 4 sons who were with him ran and hid. Ornan had been threshing wheat at the time.
21. 21When David approached, Ornan looked up and saw him. He immediately left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
22. 22David said to Ornan, "Sell me this threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD here. Charge me the full price, so the plague against the people can be stopped."
23. 23Ornan said to David, "Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever he thinks is best. Look — I'll give you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing boards for firewood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I'll give you everything."
24. 24But King David told Ornan, "No — I insist on paying the full price. I won't take what belongs to you and give it to the LORD. I refuse to offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing."
25. 25So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.
26. 26David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called out to the LORD, and the LORD answered him by sending fire from heaven onto the altar of burnt offering.
27. 27Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
28. 28When David saw that the LORD had answered him there at Ornan's threshing floor, he continued to offer sacrifices at that spot.
29. 29At that time, the LORD's tabernacle that Moses had built in the wilderness, along with the altar of burnt offering, was located at the high place in Gibeon.
30. 30But David couldn't go there to seek God, because he was terrified of the sword of the angel of the LORD.