Early morning on a bare hilltop: on a round threshing floor edged with fieldstones, a small new altar of rough stones with embers glowing and a thin thread of smoke rising straight up, a wooden sledge and an ox yoke beside it, and below, the small walled town on its narrow ridge under a calm, pale sky.

The Book of

1 Chronicles 21

David counts his army and brings a plague on Israel. It stops on a threshing floor, where God answers with fire.

30 verses≈ 7 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–9GenealogiesAll Israel, from Adam
10Saul fallsThe kingdom turned to David
11–12David kingAll Israel gathers
13–16The arkBrought home with songs
17The covenantA house forever
18–20David's warsThe LORD gave victory
21The siteOrnan's threshing floorChapter 21
22–27Preparing the templePriests, Levites and singers
28–29David's farewellBe strong, and do the work

David’s Military Census

Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

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David

So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report, so that I may know their number.”

Joab

But Joab replied, “May the LORD multiply His troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all servants of my lord? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab.

By springs among green trees below snow-capped Mount Hermon, local fighting men stand in long rows outside a town gate while officers walk along the lines counting them.

So Joab departed and traveled throughout Israel, and then he returned to Jerusalem. And Joab reported to David the total number of the troops. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, including 470,000 in Judah.

But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count, because the king’s command was detestable to him.

Question

Quick question

Joab traveled throughout Israel and brought the king his number. Chronicles adds a detail Samuel does not give.

Which two tribes did Joab leave out of the count?

Judgment for David’s Sin

This command was also evil in the sight of God; so He struck Israel.

Before dawn in a plain room of cedar and stone, an old king in a deep-blue robe kneels alone on a reed mat beside a small clay oil lamp, his head bowed and his open hands held out.

Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

And the LORD instructed Gad, David’s seer,

God

“Go and tell David that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am offering you three options. Choose one of them, and I will carry it out against you.’”

Gad the prophet

So Gad went and said to David, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You must choose between three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies and overtaken by their swords, or three days of the sword of the LORD—days of plague upon the land, with the angel of the LORD ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should reply to Him who sent me.”

David

David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”

let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great

1 Chronicles 21:13

Reflect

Into the hand of the LORD

David had sinned against God, and still he chose to fall into God’s hand rather than the hands of men, “for His mercies are very great.” When you have failed, do you run from God or toward Him? Write down what you know of His mercy that makes the difference.

A Plague on Israel

So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.

At dawn on a bare hill beside a round threshing floor, a tall figure of pure white light seen from behind holds a long sword lowered toward the ground; below, the small walled town lies quiet on its ridge.

Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented from the calamity, and He said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Dusk on a stony slope below a small walled hill town: an old king and four gray-bearded elders in dark sackcloth kneel with their foreheads to the ground, seen from behind, while above the town a tall figure of soft white light, seen from behind, holds a long sword of light out over it.

When David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.

0:12

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, please let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house, but do not let this plague remain upon Your people.”

David Builds an Altar

Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD.

A bright spring morning on a round threshing floor: a landowner with a winnowing fork stands frozen by his yoked oxen and sledge on the spread wheat, staring up at a pale white light falling across the floor, while behind a tall heap of straw his four sons crouch hiding and peer out.

Now Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.

David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked out and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed facedown before David.

David

Then David said to Ornan, “Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the LORD. Sell it to me for the full price, so that the plague upon the people may be halted.”

Ornan

Ornan said to David, “Take it! May my lord the king do whatever seems good to him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering—I will give it all.”

1 Chronicles 21:24

So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the site.

And there he built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called upon the LORD, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

Pray

Not what costs me nothing

Confess the pride that trusts in numbers and strength instead of in the LORD. Thank Him that “His mercies are very great” and that He said “Enough!” Ask Him for a shepherd’s heart for the people in your care. Offer Him something that costs you, as David would not offer “burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

You’ve experienced

1 Chronicles 21

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A verse to carry with you

“No,” replied King David, “I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the LORD what belongs to you, nor will I offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

1 Chronicles 21:24

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