Thematic Bible: On the israelites


Thematic Bible



David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly." When David rose up in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, "Go and speak to David, 'Thus says the LORD, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'" read more.
So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, "Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me." David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into the hand of man." So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is enough. Now stay your hand." The angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, "Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house." Gad came that day to David, and said to him, "Go up, build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded. Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people." Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood: all this, king, does Araunah give to the king." Araunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you." The king said to Araunah, "No; but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.


But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, "You have killed the LORD's people." It happened, when the congregation was assembled against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the Tent of Meeting: and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared. Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of Meeting. read more.
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment." They fell on their faces. Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer, and put fire from off the altar in it, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun." Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and behold, the plague has begun among the people: and he put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides those who died about the matter of Korah. Aaron returned to Moses to the door of the Tent of Meeting: and the plague was stayed.


Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although there came a plague on the congregation of the LORD,


even those men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before the LORD.


While the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.


The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died.