The Skeptics Annotated Bible (372 page)

9 And the LORD spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying,

10 Go and tell David, saying,
Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things
: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

(21.10)
“Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things.”

11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee

12
Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes
, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee;
or else three days
the sword of the LORD, even the
pestilence
, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.

(21.12)
“Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes … or else three days … pestilence.”
215 How many years of famine?

13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait:
let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies:
but let me not fall into the hand of man.

(21.13)
“Let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies.”
After God threatens to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people for a census that he inspired, David says, “let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great.”
120 Is God merciful?

14
So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

(21.14)
“So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.”
God killed 70,000 men (and their families) in a plague to punish David for having a census that he (or Satan) inspired.
God’s 85th Killing

15 And
God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand.
And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

(21.15)
“God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand.”
32 Does God repent?

16 And
David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders
of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth,
fell upon their faces.

(21.16a)
“David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.”

(21.16b)
“Then David and the elders … fell upon their faces.”

17 And
David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?
even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed;
but as for these sheep, what have they done?
let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.

(21.17)
“David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? … but as for these sheep, what have they done?”

18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.

20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all.

24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.

25 So
David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold
by weight.

(21.25) “David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold.” David buys the threshingfloor for 600 shekels of gold, but in 2 Samuel 24.24 he gets a much better deal and pays only 50 shekels of silver.
216 What did David pay for the threshingfloor?

26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.

27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.

30 But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

22
Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.

2 And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

3 And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight;

4 Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.

5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.