They would spend the night in their posts all around God's sanctuary, for they were assigned to guard it and would open it with the key every morning.

"Go, tell my servant David: 'This is what the Lord says: "You must not build me a house in which to live.

David told Joab and the leaders of the army, "Go, count the number of warriors from Beer Sheba to Dan. Then bring back a report to me so I may know how many we have."

"Go, tell David, 'This is what the Lord says: "I am offering you three forms of judgment from which to choose. Pick one of them."'"

So the Lord's messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

But David could not go before it to seek God's will, for he was afraid of the sword of the Lord's messenger.