Study Desk

And Joab saith, `Jehovah doth add to His people as they are a hundred times; are they not, my lord, O king, all of them to my lord for servants? why doth my lord seek this? why is he for a cause of guilt to Israel?'

And Levi and Benjamin he hath not numbered in their midst, for the word of the king was abominable with Joab.

and David saith unto God, `I have sinned exceedingly, in that I have done this thing; and now, cause to pass away, I pray Thee, the iniquity of Thy servant, for I have acted very foolishly.'

`Go, and thou hast spoken unto David, saying, Thus said Jehovah, Three -- I am stretching out unto thee; choose for thee one of these, and I do [it] to thee.'

And Gad cometh in unto David, and saith to him, `Thus said Jehovah, Take for thee --

either for three years -- famine, or three months to be consumed from the face of thine adversaries, even the sword of thine enemies to overtake, or three days the sword of Jehovah, even pestilence in the land, and a messenger of Jehovah destroying in all the border of Israel; and now, see; what word do I return to Him who is sending me?'

And David saith unto Gad, `I am greatly distressed, let me fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah, for very many [are] His mercies, and into the hand of man let me not fall.'

And the messenger of Jehovah spake unto Gad, saying for David, `Surely David doth go up to raise an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.'

And David saith unto Ornan, `Give to me the place of the threshing-floor, and I build in it an altar to Jehovah; for full silver give it to me, and the plague is restrained from the people.'

And Ornan saith unto David, `Take to thee -- and my lord the king doth that which is good in his eyes: see, I have given the oxen for burnt-offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for a present; the whole I have given.'

And king David saith to Ornan, `Nay, for I surely buy for full silver; for I do not lift up that which is thine to Jehovah, so as to offer a burnt-offering without cost.'

And David giveth to Ornan for the place shekels of gold [in] weight six hundred;

and David is not able to go before it to seek God, for he hath been afraid because of the sword of the messenger of Jehovah.

And David saith, `This is the house of Jehovah God, and this the altar for burnt-offering for Israel.'

And iron in abundance for nails for leaves of the gates, and for couplings, hath David prepared, and brass in abundance -- there is no weighing.

And cedar-trees even without number, for the Zidonians and the Tyrians brought in cedar-trees in abundance to David.

And David saith, `Solomon my son [is] a youth and tender, and the house to be built to Jehovah [is] to be made exceedingly great, for name and for beauty to all the lands; let me prepare, I pray Thee, for it;' and David prepareth in abundance before his death.

And he calleth for Solomon his son, and chargeth him to build a house to Jehovah, God of Israel,

and David saith to Solomon his son, `As for me, it hath been with my heart to build a house to the name of Jehovah my God,

and the word of Jehovah [is] against me, saying, Blood in abundance thou hast shed, and great wars thou hast made: thou dost not build a house to My name, for much blood thou hast shed to the earth before Me.