1And again the anger of YHWH was kindled against Israel, and He incited David against them, saying: Go, number Israel and Judah.
2And the king said to Joab the captain of the host who was with him: Go now to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.
3And Joab said to the king: May YHWH your God add to the people, as many as they are, a hundred times, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it; but my lord the king, why does he delight in this thing?
4But the word of the king prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the host; and Joab and the captains of the host went out from before the king to number the people, Israel.
5And they crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer, to the right of the city that is in the midst of the valley of Gad, and toward Jazer.
6And they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon,
7and they came to the stronghold of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivite and the Canaanite; and they went out to the Negev of Judah, to Beer-sheba.
8And they roamed through all the land, and came at the end of nine months and twenty days to Jerusalem.
9And Joab gave the number of the mustering of the people to the king; and Israel was eight hundred thousand valiant men (ish) who drew the sword, and the men (ish) of Judah were five hundred thousand men (ish).
10And David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people; and David said to YHWH: I have sinned greatly in what I have done; and now, YHWH, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.
11And David rose in the morning, and the word of YHWH came to Gad the prophet, David's seer, saying:
12Go and speak to David: Thus says YHWH: Three things I am laying upon you; choose for yourself one of them, that I may do it to you.
13And Gad came to David and told him, and said to him: Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or three months of your fleeing before your foes while he pursues you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Now know and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.
14And David said to Gad: I am in great distress; let us fall now into the hand of YHWH, for His mercies are many; but into the hand of man (adam) let me not fall.
15And YHWH sent a pestilence in Israel from the morning even to the appointed time (moed); and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men (ish).
16And the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and YHWH relented concerning the evil, and said to the angel destroying among the people: Enough, now relax your hand. And the angel of YHWH was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17And David said to YHWH when he saw the angel striking among the people, and said: Behold, I have sinned, and I have done iniquity; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house.
18And Gad came to David on that day, and said to him: Go up, raise up to YHWH an altar in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
19And David went up according to the word of Gad, as YHWH commanded (tzivvah).
20And Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed down to the king, his face to the ground.
21And Araunah said: Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said: To buy from you the threshing floor, to build an altar to YHWH, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
22And Araunah said to David: Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his eyes; see the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the gear of the oxen for the wood.
23All this Araunah the king gave to the king. And Araunah said to the king: May YHWH your God accept you.
24And the king said to Araunah: No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; and I will not offer up to YHWH my God burnt offerings for nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25And David built there an altar to YHWH, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings; and YHWH was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.