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Rh 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. And 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 my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against Thy people, that they should be plagued.'

Then the angel of the commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and rear an altar unto the  in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the. And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons that were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. And 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. Then David said to Ornan: 'Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto the ; for the full price shalt thou give it me; that the plague may be stayed from the people.' And 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'And 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, nor offer a burnt-offering without cost.' So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. And David built there an altar unto the, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon the ; and He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering. And the commanded the angel; and he put up his sword back into the sheath thereof.

At that time, when David saw that the had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. For the tabernacle of the, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was terrified because of the sword of the angel of the. Then David said: 'This is the house of the God, and this is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel.'

And 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. And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in abundance without weight; and cedar-trees without number; for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar-trees in abundance to David. And David said: 'Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the 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.

Then He called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build a house for the, the God of Israel. And