between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17And David said unto God: 'Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? let Thy hand, I pray Thee, O Lord my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against Thy people, that they should be plagued.'
18Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord. 20And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons that were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. 21And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed down to David with his face to the ground. 22Then David said to Ornan: 'Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto the Lord; for the full price shalt thou give it me; that the plague may be stayed from the people.' 23And 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 for burnt-offerings, and the threshing-instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering; I give it all'24And 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 a burnt-offering without cost.' 25So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. 26And 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. 27And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword back into the sheath thereof.
28At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 29For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. 30But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was terrified because of the sword of the angel of the Lord. 221Then David said: 'This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel.'
2And 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. 3And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in abundance without weight; 4and cedar-trees without number; for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar-trees in abundance to David. 5And David said: 'Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries; I will therefore make preparation for him.' So David prepared abundantly before his death.
6Then He called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. 7And Da-
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