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The Second
Book of Samuel 24
And the anger of the Lord was again kindled against
Israel, and stirred up David among them, saying: Go,
number Israel and Juda.
And the king said to Joab the general of his army: Go
through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Bersabee,
and number ye the people that I may know the number
of them.
And Joab said to the king: The Lord thy God increase
thy people, and make them as many more as they are now,
and again multiply them a hundredfold in the sight of
my lord the king: but what meaneth my lord the king
by this kind of thing?
But the king's words prevailed over the words of Joab,
and of the captains of the army: and Joab, and the captains
of the soldiers went out from the presence of the king,
to number the people of Israel.
And when they had passed the Jordan, they came to Aroer
to the right side of the city, which is in the vale
of Gad.
And by Jazer they passed into Galaad, and to the lower
land of Hodsi, and they came into the woodlands of Dan.
And going about by Sidon,
They passed near the walls of Tyre, and all the land
of the Hevite, and the Chanaanite, and they came to
the south of Juda into Bersabee:
And having gone through the whole land, after nine months
and twenty days, they came to Jerusalem.
And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people
to the king, and there were found of Israel eight hundred
thousand valiant men that drew the sword: and of Juda
five hundred thousand fighting men.
But David's heart struck him, after the people were
numbered: and David said to the Lord: I have sinned
very much in what I have done: but I pray thee, O Lord,
to take away the iniquity of thy servant, because I
have done exceeding foolishly.
And David arose in the morning, and the word of the
Lord came to Gad the prophet and the seer of David,
saying:
Go, and say to David: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee
thy choice of three things, choose one of them which
thou wilt, that I may do it to thee.
And when Gad was come to David, he told him, saying:
Either seven years of famine shall come to thee in thy
land: or thou shalt flee three months before thy adversaries,
and they shall pursue thee: or for three days there
shall be a pestilence in thy land. Now therefore deliberate,
and see what answer I shall return to him that sent
me.
And David said to Gad: I am in a great strait: but it
is better that I should fall into the hands of the Lord
(for his mercies are many) than into the hands of men.
And the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, from the
morning unto the time appointed, and there died of the
people from Dan to Bersabee seventy thousand men.
And when the angel of the Lord had stretched out his
hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord had pity
on the affliction, and said to the angel that slew the
people: It is enough: now hold thy hand. And the angel
of the Lord was by the thrashingfloor of Areuna the
Jebusite.
And David said to the Lord, when he saw the angel striking
the people: It is I; 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
me, and against my father's house.
And Gad came to David that day, and said: Go up, and
build an altar to the Lord in the thrashingfloor of
Areuna the Jebusite.
And David went up according to the word of Gad which
the Lord had commanded him.
And Areuna looked, and saw the king and his servants
coming towards him:
An going out he worshipped the king, bowing with his
face to the earth, and said: Wherefore is my lord the
king come to his servant? Arid David said to him: To
buy the thrashingfloor of thee, and build an altar to
the Lord, that the plague, which rageth among the people,
may cease.
And Areuna said to David: Let my lord the king take,
and offer, as it seemeth good to him: thou hast here
oxen for a holocaust, and the wain, and the yokes of
the oxen for wood.
All these things Areuna as a king gave to the king:
and Areuna said to the king: The Lord thy God receive
thy vow.
And the king answered him, and said: Nay, but I will
buy it of thee at a price, and I will not offer to the
Lord my God holocausts free cost. So David bought the
floor, and the oxen, for fifty sicles of silver:
And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered
holocausts and peace offerings: and the Lord became
merciful to the land, and the plague was stayed from
Israel. |
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