Part 246 (2/2)
21:5. And he gave David the number of them, whom he had surveyed: and all the number of Israel was found to be eleven hundred thousand men that drew the sword: and of Juda four hundred and seventy thousand fighting men.
The number, etc... The difference of the numbers here and 2 Kings 24. is to be accounted for, by supposing the greater number to be that which was really found, and the lesser to be that which Joab gave in.
21:6. But Levi and Benjamin he did not number: for Joab unwillingly executed the king's orders.
21:7. And G.o.d was displeased with this thing that was commanded: and he struck Israel.
21:8. And David said to G.o.d: I have sinned exceedingly in doing this: I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done foolishly.
21:9. And the Lord spoke to Gad the seer of David, saying:
21:10. Go, and speak to David, and tell him: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee the choice of three things: choose one which thou wilt, and I will do it to thee.
21:11. And when Gad was come to David, he said to him: Thus saith the Lord: choose which thou wilt:
21:12. Either three years famine: or three months to flee from thy enemies, and not to be able to escape their sword: or three days to have the sword of the Lord, and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying in all the coasts of Israel: now therefore see what I shall answer him who sent me.
Three years famine... Which joined with the three foregoing years of famine mentioned, 2 Kings 21. and the seventh year of the land's resting, would make up the seven years proposed by the prophet, 2 Kings 24.13.
21:13. And David said to Gad: I am on every side in a great strait: but it is better for me to fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, than into the hands of men.
21:14. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. And there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
21:15. And he sent an angel to Jerusalem, to strike it: and as he was striking it, the Lord beheld, and took pity for the greatness of the evil: and said to the angel that destroyed: It is enough, now stop thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the thras.h.i.+ngfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Ornan... Otherwise Areuna.
21:16. And David lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand, turned against Jerusalem: and both he and the ancients clothed in haircloth, fell down flat on the ground.
21:17. And David said to G.o.d: Am not I he that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned: it is I that have done the evil: but as for this flock, what hath it deserved? O Lord my G.o.d, let thy hand be turned, I beseech thee, upon me, and upon my father's house: and let not thy people be destroyed.
21:18. And the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David, to go up, and build an altar to the Lord G.o.d in the thras.h.i.+ngfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:19. And David went up, according to the word of Gad, which he spoke to him in the name of the Lord.
21:20. Now when Ornan looked up, and saw the angel, he and his four sons hid themselves: for at that time he was thras.h.i.+ng wheat in the floor.
21:21. And as David was coming to Ornan, Ornan saw him, and went out of the thras.h.i.+ngfloor to meet him, and bowed down to him with his face to the ground.
21:22. And David said to him: Give me this place of thy thras.h.i.+ngfloor, that I may build therein an altar to the Lord: but thou shalt take of me as much money as it is worth, that the plague may cease from the people.
21:23. And Ornan said to David: Take it, and let my lord the king do all that pleaseth him: and moreover the oxen also I give for a holocaust, and the drays for wood, and the wheat for the sacrifice: I will give it all willingly.
21:24. And king David said to him: It shall not be so, but I will give thee money as much as it is worth: for I must not take it from thee, and so offer to the Lord holocausts free cost.
21:25. So David gave to Ornan for the place, six hundred sicles of gold of just weight.
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