An Offering That Costs

The book ends with one more failure and one more mercy. David ordered a census of the fighting men. Joab objected, but the king's word prevailed. The count took nine months and twenty days. Afterward David's heart struck him, and he confessed that he had sinned greatly and acted very foolishly.

Through Gad the seer, God offered three judgments: famine, fleeing from enemies, or three days of pestilence. David said, Let us fall now into Yahweh's hand, for his mercies are great. The pestilence took seventy thousand men. But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem, Yahweh relented and said, It is enough.

David pleaded for the people, asking that God's hand be against him and his father's house instead, since the people were like sheep. Gad told him to build an altar at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Araunah offered the place, the oxen, and the wood for free. David refused: he would not offer burnt offerings that cost him nothing. He bought it, built an altar, and Yahweh was entreated for the land.