1 Chronicles 21 :: Bible in Basic English (BBE)

Census Brings Pestilence

(2Sa 24:1–25 )

1Ch 21:1Now Satan, designing evil against Israel, put into David's mind the impulse to take the number of Israel.

1Ch 21:2And David said to Joab and the captains of the people, Now let all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, be numbered; and give me word so that I may be certain of their number.

1Ch 21:3

1Ch 21:3And Joab said, May the Lord make his people a hundred times more in number than they are; but, my lord king, are they not all my lord's servants? why would my lord have this done? why will he become a cause of sin to Israel?

1Ch 21:4

1Ch 21:4But the king's word was stronger than Joab's. So Joab went out and went through all Israel and came to Jerusalem.

1Ch 21:5

1Ch 21:5And Joab gave David the number of all the people; all the men of Israel, able to take up arms, were one million, one hundred thousand men; and those of Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men, able to take up arms.

1Ch 21:6

1Ch 21:6But Levi and Benjamin were not numbered among them, for Joab was disgusted with the king's order.

1Ch 21:7

1Ch 21:7And God was not pleased with this thing; so he sent punishment on Israel.

1Ch 21:8

1Ch 21:8Then David said to God, Great has been my sin in doing this; but now, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.

1Ch 21:9

1Ch 21:9Then the word of the Lord came to Gad, David's seer, saying,

1Ch 21:10

1Ch 21:10Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, so that I may do it to you.

1Ch 21:11

1Ch 21:11So Gad came to David and said to him, The Lord says, Take whichever you will:

1Ch 21:12

1Ch 21:12Three years when there will not be enough food; or three months of war, when you will go in flight before your haters, being in great danger of the sword; or three days of the sword of the Lord, disease in the land, and the angel of the Lord taking destruction through all the land of Israel. Now give thought to the answer I am to take back to him who sent me.

1Ch 21:13

1Ch 21:13And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let me come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men.

1Ch 21:14

1Ch 21:14So the Lord sent disease on Israel, causing the death of seventy thousand men.

1Ch 21:15

1Ch 21:15And God sent an angel to Jerusalem for its destruction: and when he was about to do so, the Lord saw, and had regret for the evil, and said to the angel of destruction, It is enough; do no more. Now the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

1Ch 21:16

1Ch 21:16And David, lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord there between earth and heaven, with an uncovered sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the responsible men, clothed in haircloth, went down on their faces.

1Ch 21:17

1Ch 21:17And David said to God, Was it not I who gave the order for the people to be numbered? It is I who have done the sin and the great wrong; but these are only sheep; what have they done? let your hand, O Lord God, be lifted up against me and against my family, but not against your people to send disease on them.

David's Altar

1Ch 21:18

1Ch 21:18Then the angel of the Lord gave orders to Gad to say to David that he was to go and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

1Ch 21:19

1Ch 21:19And David went up, as Gad had said in the name of the Lord.

1Ch 21:20

1Ch 21:20And Ornan, turning back, saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him went to a secret place. Now Ornan was crushing his grain.

1Ch 21:21

1Ch 21:21And when David came, Ornan, looking, saw him, and came out from the grain-floor and went down on his face to the earth before him.

1Ch 21:22

1Ch 21:22Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place where this grain-floor is, so that I may put up an altar here to the Lord: let me have it for its full price; so that this disease may be stopped among the people.

1Ch 21:23

1Ch 21:23And Ornan said to David, Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems right to him. See, I give you the oxen for burned offerings and the grain-cleaning instruments for fire-wood, and the grain for the meal offering; I give it all.

1Ch 21:24

1Ch 21:24And King David said to Ornan, No; I will certainly give you the full price for it, because I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or give a burned offering without payment.

1Ch 21:25

1Ch 21:25So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.

1Ch 21:26

1Ch 21:26And David put up an altar there to the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings with prayers to the Lord; and he gave him an answer from heaven, sending fire on the altar of burned offering.

1Ch 21:27

1Ch 21:27Then the Lord gave orders to the angel, and he put back his sword into its cover.

1Ch 21:28

1Ch 21:28At that time, when David saw that the Lord had given him an answer on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made an offering there.

1Ch 21:29

1Ch 21:29For the House of the Lord, which Moses had made in the waste land, and the altar of burned offerings, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

1Ch 21:30

1Ch 21:30But David was not able to go before it to get directions from the Lord, so great was his fear of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

The Bible in Basic English was translated by Professor Samuel Henry Hooke (1874-1968)
This translation of the Bible is in the public domain.

1 Chronicles 21 :: Bible in Basic English (BBE)

Census Brings Pestilence

David's Altar

Pericope