1 Chronicles 21 · WEB
David's Census and the Plague; The Threshing Floor of Ornan
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Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.
2David 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."
3Joab said, "May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?"
4Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
5Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword; and of Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew the sword.
6But he didn't number Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
7This thing displeased God; and he struck Israel.
8David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, put away the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."
9Yahweh spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10"Go and speak to David, saying, 'Yahweh says, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'"
11So Gad came to David, and said to him, "Yahweh says, 'Take your choice:
12either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Yahweh destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel.' Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me."
13David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let me fall into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are very great. Let me not fall into the hand of man."
14So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
15God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, "It is enough; now stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."
18The angel of Yahweh commanded Gad to tell David that he should go up, and raise an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh.
20Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22Then David said to Ornan, "Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to Yahweh. You shall sell it to me at the full price; for I will not take what is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering without cost."
23Ornan said to David, "Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all."
24King David said to Ornan, "No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take what is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering without cost."
25So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
26David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
27Yahweh commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.
28At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.
29For the tabernacle of Yahweh, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time at the high place at Gibeon;
30but David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Yahweh. **21:1** David said, "This is the house of Yahweh God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel."
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Summary
Satan incites David to conduct a military census — an act of pride that relies on numbers rather than God. Despite Joab's warning, David proceeds. God sends a plague that kills 70,000 men, but halts it at the threshing floor of Ornan (Araunah) the Jebusite. David intercedes, taking personal responsibility for his sin. He purchases the threshing floor, builds an altar, and God answers with fire from heaven. David declares this the site for the future temple — Mount Moriah, where Solomon will later build it.
Themes
- The danger of pride and self-reliance
- Genuine repentance and intercessory prayer
- God's mercy prevailing over judgment
Key verses
- 1 Chr 21:13 — “Let me fall into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are very great. Let me not fall into the hand of man.”
- 1 Chr 21:17 — “Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered?... but these sheep, what have they done?”
- 1 Chr 21:24 — “I will not take what is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering without cost.”
Context & background
The threshing floor of Ornan (called Araunah in 2 Samuel 24) on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem (modern Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Israel) is one of the most significant sites in biblical history. It is identified in 2 Chronicles 3:1 as the location where Solomon built the temple — and traditionally the same site where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac (Genesis 22). The Dome of the Rock mosque stands there today. The census sin appears to be an act of military pride — trusting in the size of Israel's army rather than in God. Joab, who is rarely the most spiritual figure in the narrative, recognized the sin before David did.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 3:1 — "Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah"
- 2 Samuel 24 — Parallel account with "the LORD" rather than "Satan" as the inciting force
- Exodus 30:12 — A ransom must be paid when numbering the people, lest a plague break out
- Genesis 22:2 — Abraham's sacrifice on Moriah; the same sacred mountain
- Romans 5:8 — "God demonstrates his own love... while we were yet sinners" — God's mercy amid judgment