1 Chronicles 21

• 1. Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
• 2. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are."
• 3. But Joab replied, "May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?"
• 4. The king's word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem.
• 5. Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.
• 6. But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king's command was repulsive to him.
• 7. This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.
• 8. Then David said to God, "I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing."
• 9. The LORD said to Gad, David's seer,
• 10. "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.'"
• 11. So Gad went to David and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: 'Take your choice:
• 12. three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the LORD -days of plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD ravaging every part of Israel.' Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me."
• 13. David said to Gad, "I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men."
• 14. So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
• 15. And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, "Enough! Withdraw your hand." The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
• 16. David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
• 17. David said to God, "Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? O LORD my God, let your hand fall upon me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people."
• 18. Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
• 19. So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD.
• 20. While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves.
• 21. Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
• 22. David said to him, "Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price."
• 23. Araunah said to David, "Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this."
• 24. But King David replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing."
• 25. So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site.
• 26. David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
• 27. Then the LORD spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
• 28. At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.
• 29. The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.
• 30. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

1 Peter 2

• 1. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
• 2. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
• 3. now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
• 4. As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--
• 5. you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
• 6. For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
• 7. Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, "
• 8. and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for.
• 9. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
• 10. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
• 11. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
• 12. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
• 13. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority,
• 14. or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
• 15. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
• 16. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
• 17. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
• 18. Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
• 19. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.
• 20. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
• 21. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
• 22. "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
• 23. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
• 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
• 25. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Jonah 4

• 1. But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.
• 2. He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
• 3. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
• 4. But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"
• 5. Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.
• 6. Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.
• 7. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.
• 8. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."
• 9. But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
• 10. But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
• 11. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

New International Version

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