Book 38 : KETUVIM - 1 CHRONICLES - Chapter 021
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And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to
number Israel
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And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people:
'Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may
know the sum of them.
21:003
And Joab said: 'The HaShem make His people a hundred times
so many more as they are; but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's
servants? why doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt
unto Israel?
21:004
Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab.
Wherefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem
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And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people
unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred
thousand men that drew sword; and Judah was four hundred three-score and ten
thousand men that drew sword
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But Levi and Benjamin he did not number among them; for the
king's word was abominable to Joab
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And G-d was displeased with this thing; therefore He smote
Israel
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And David said unto G-d: 'I have sinned greatly, in that I
have done this thing; but now, put away, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of Thy
servant; for I have done very foolishly.
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And HaShem spoke unto Gad, David's seer, saying
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'Go and speak unto David, saying: Thus saith HaShem: I
offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
21:011
So Gad came to David, and said unto him: 'Thus saith
HaShem: Take which thou wilt
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either three years of famine; or three months to be swept
away before thy foes, while the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else
three days the sword of HaShem, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of
HaShem destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider
what answer I shall return to Him that sent me.
21:013
And David said unto Gad: 'I am in a great strait; let me
fall now into the hand of HaShem, for very great are His mercies; and let me not
fall into the hand of man.
21:014
So HaShem sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of
Israel seventy thousand men
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And G-d sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; and as
he was about to destroy, HaShem beheld, and He repented Him of the evil, and
said to the destroying angel: 'It is enough; now stay thy hand.' And the angel
of HaShem was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite
21:016
And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of HaShem
standing between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand
stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth,
fell upon their faces
21:017
And David said unto G-d: 'Is it not I that commanded the
people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done very wickedly; but
these sheep, what have they done? let Thy hand, I pray Thee, O HaShem my G-d, be
against me, and against my father's house; but not against Thy people, that they
should be plagued.
21:018
Then the angel of HaShem commanded Gad to say to David,
that David should go up, and rear an altar unto HaShem in the threshing-floor of
Ornan the Jebusite
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And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in
the name of HaShem
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And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four
sons that were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat
21:021
And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David,
and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed down to David with his face to
the ground
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Then David said to Ornan: 'Give me the place of this
threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto HaShem; for the full
price shalt thou give it me; that the plague may be stayed from the people.
21:023
And Ornan said unto David: 'Take it to thee, and let my
lord the king do that which is good in his eyes; lo, I give thee the oxen for
burnt-offerings, and the threshing-instruments for wood, and the wheat for the
meal-offering; I give it all
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And king David said to Ornan: 'Nay, but I will verily buy
it for the full price; for I will not take that which is thine for HaShem, nor
offer a burnt-offering without cost.
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So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels
of gold by weight
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And David built there an altar unto HaShem, and offered
burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon HaShem; and He answered him
from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering
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And HaShem commanded the angel; and he put up his sword
back into the sheath thereof
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At that time, when David saw that HaShem had answered him
in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there
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For the tabernacle of HaShem, which Moses made in the
wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place
at Gibeon
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But David could not go before it to inquire of G-d; for he
was terrified because of the sword of the angel of HaShem
Book 38 : KETUVIM - 1 CHRONICLES - Chapter 021
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