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The Blue Letter Bible

1 Chronicles 21 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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David’s Census Brings Pestilence

(2Sa 24:1–25 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:1

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:1 - Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:2

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:2 - So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:3

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:3 - But Joab said, “May the LORD add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord’s servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:4

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:4 - But the king’s word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:5

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:5 - And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah 470,000 who drew the sword.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:6

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:6 - But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:7

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:7 - But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:8

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:8 - And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:9

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:9 - And the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:10

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:10 - “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:11

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:11 - So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Choose what you will:

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:12

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:12 - either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:13

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:13 - Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:14

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:14 - So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:15

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:15 - And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the LORD saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:16

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:16 - And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:17

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:17 - And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.”

David Builds an Altar

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:18

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:18 - Now the angel of the LORD had commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:19

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:19 - So David went up at Gad’s word, which he had spoken in the name of the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:20

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:20 - Now Ornan was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:21

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:21 - As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and paid homage to David with his face to the ground.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:22

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:22 - And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the LORD—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:23

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:23 - Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:24

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:24 - But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:25

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:25 - So David paid Ornan 600 shekels[fn] of gold by weight for the site.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:26

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:26 - And David built there an altar to the LORD and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the LORD, and the LORD[fn] answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:27

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:27 - Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:28

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:28 - At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:29

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:29 - For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon,

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Unchecked Copy Box 1Ch 21:30

Unchecked Copy Box1Ch 21:30 - but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV Footnotes
A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
Hebrew he
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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1 Chronicles Chapter 21 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras