Consurrexit autem Satan contra Israël, et concitavit David ut numeraret Israël.

But now Satan disturbed the peace of Israel, by inciting David to make a re-gister of the people.

And Satan rose up against Israel: and moved David to number Israel.

Dixitque David ad Joab et ad principes populi: Ite, et numerate Israël a Bersabee usque Dan: et afferte mihi numerum ut sciam.

From David the word came to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go through all the tribes from Dan to Bersabee, make a muster-roll, and let me know the full tale of them.

And David said to Joab, and to the rulers of the people: Go, and number Israel from Bersabee even to Dan, and bring me the number of them that I may know it.

Responditque Joab: Augeat Dominus populum suum centuplum quam sunt: nonne, domine mi rex, omnes servi tui sunt? quare hoc quærit dominus meus, quod in peccatum reputetur Israëli?

Why, said Joab, my prayer is that the Lord may increase the number of his people a hundredfold. But, my lord king, are we not all at thy service? What need, my lord, to carry out such a design as may bring guilt on the whole of Israel?

And Joab answered: The Lord make his people a hundred times more than they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all thy servants: why doth my lord seek this thing, which may be imputed as a sin to Israel?

Sed sermo regis magis prævaluit: egressusque est Joab, et circuivit universum Israël: et reversus est Jerusalem,

But the king’s will might not be thwarted; so Joab left his presence to make a review of the whole country, and when he came back to Jerusalem

But the king’s word rather prevailed: and Joab departed, and went through all Israel: and returned to Jerusalem.

deditque David numerum eorum quos circuierat: et inventus est omnis numerus Israël, mille millia et centum millia virorum educentium gladium: de Juda autem quadringenta septuaginta millia bellatorum.

he handed in to David the number of those he had registered; the full muster-roll was one million one hundred thousand that bore arms in Israel, with four hundred and seventy thousand in Juda.

And he gave David the number of them, whom he had surveyed: and all the number of Israel was found to be eleven hundred thousand men that drew the sword: and of Juda four hundred and seventy thousand fighting men.

Nam Levi et Benjamin non numeravit: eo quod Joab invitus exsequeretur regis imperium.

Levi and Benjamin were never counted, so loth was Joab to execute the king’s will.

But Levi and Benjamin he did not number: for Joab unwillingly executed the king’s orders.

Displicuit autem Deo quod jussum erat: et percussit Israël.

But meanwhile, in his displeasure at the command given, the Lord had begun to smite down Israel;

And God was displeased with this thing that was commanded: and he struck Israel.

Dixitque David ad Deum: Peccavi nimis ut hoc facerem: obsecro, aufer iniquitatem servi tui, quia insipienter egi.

whereupon David confessed to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done; give my sin quittance; I have played a fool’s part.

And David said to God: I have sinned exceedingly in doing this: I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done foolishly.

Et locutus est Dominus ad Gad videntem Davidis, dicens:

And the word of the Lord came to Gad, that was David’s seer,

And the Lord spoke to Gad the seer of David, saying:

Vade, et loquere ad David, et dic ei: Hæc dicit Dominus: Trium tibi optionem do: unum, quod volueris, elige, et faciam tibi.

Go and give David this message from the Lord; Here are three choices I grant thee, to choose thy own punishment.

Go, and speak to David, and tell him: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee the choice of three things: choose one which thou wilt, and I will do it to thee.

Cumque venisset Gad ad David, dixit ei: Hæc dicit Dominus: Elige, quod volueris:

So Gad presented himself before David, bidding him in the Lord’s name make his choice.

And when Gad was come to David, he said to him: Thus saith the Lord: choose which thou wilt:

aut tribus annis famem; aut tribus mensibus te fugere hostes tuos, et gladium eorum non posse evadere; aut tribus diebus gladium Domini, et pestilentiam versari in terra, et angelum Domini interficere in universis finibus Israël: nunc igitur vide quid respondeam ei qui misit me.

Wilt thou have three years of famine, he asked, or three months of flight before thy enemies, and yet no escape, or three days in which the Lord’s own sword of pestilence shall pass through the land, his angel dealing death all through the realm of Israel? Think well, and tell me what answer I shall make to him whose message I bear.

Either three years’ famine: or three months to flee from thy enemies, and not to be able to escape their sword: or three days to have the sword of the Lord, and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying in all the coasts of Israel: now therefore see what I shall answer him who sent me.

Et dixit David ad Gad: Ex omni parte me angustiæ premunt: sed melius mihi est ut incidam in manus Domini, quia multæ sunt miserationes ejus, quam in manus hominum.

I am hard pressed on all sides, David told him; but it is better to fall into the hands of the Lord, so rich is he in mercy, than into the hands of men.

And David said to Gad: I am on every side in a great strait: but it is better for me to fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, than into the hands of men.

Misit ergo Dominus pestilentiam in Israël: et ceciderunt de Israël septuaginta millia virorum.

So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, by which seventy thousand men perished.

So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. And there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

Misit quoque angelum in Jerusalem ut percuteret eam: cumque percuteretur, vidit Dominus, et misertus est super magnitudine mali: et imperavit angelo qui percutiebat: Sufficit, jam cesset manus tua. Porro angelus Domini stabat juxta aream Ornan Jebusæi.

But when his angel reached Jerusalem, ready to carry out his errand and smite it, the Lord was moved with pity over their great calamity; and he said to the angel that would have smitten them, It is enough, stay thy hand. The angel of the Lord stood close, then, to the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite;

And he sent an angel to Jerusalem, to strike it: and as he was striking it, the Lord beheld, and took pity for the greatness of the evil: and said to the angel that destroyed: It is enough, now stop thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Levansque David oculos suos, vidit angelum Domini stantem inter cælum et terram, et evaginatum gladium in manu ejus, et versum contra Jerusalem: et ceciderunt tam ipse quam majores natu, vestiti ciliciis, proni in terram.

and David, looking up, saw him standing there with drawn sword between heaven and earth, with his face towards Jerusalem. At that, both he and all the elders, that went clad in sack-cloth, fell prostrate on the ground.

And David lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand, turned against Jerusalem: and both he and the ancients clothed in haircloth, fell down flat on the ground.

Dixitque David ad Deum: Nonne ego sum, qui jussi ut numeraretur populus? ego, qui peccavi? ego, qui malum feci? iste grex, quid commeruit? Domine Deus meus, vertatur, obsecro, manus tua in me, et in domum patris mei: populus autem tuus non percutiatur.

Nay, said David to the Lord, was it not at my command that the muster-roll was taken? The sin is mine, the fault is mine; these poor sheep of mine, what wrong have they done? Against me turn thy hand, O Lord my God, and against my father’s race; let the people be smitten no more.

And David said to God: Am not I he that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned: it is I that have done the evil: but as for this flock, what hath it deserved? O Lord my God, let thy hand be turned, I beseech thee, upon me, and upon my father’s house: and let not thy people be destroyed.

Angelus autem Domini præcepit Gad ut diceret Davidi ut ascenderet, exstrueretque altare Domino Deo in area Ornan Jebusæi.

Then, at the bidding of the Lord’s angel, Gad would have David go up to Ornan’s threshing-floor and build an altar there to the Lord his God;

And the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David, to go up, and build an altar to the Lord God in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Ascendit ergo David juxta sermonem Gad, quem locutus ei fuerat ex nomine Domini.

and Gad’s word, that was the Lord’s word, the king made haste to obey.

And David went up, according to the word of Gad, which he spoke to him in the name of the Lord.

Porro Ornan cum suspexisset et vidisset angelum, quatuorque filii ejus cum eo, absconderunt se: nam eo tempore terebat in area triticum.

Ornan and his four sons, that were threshing wheat there, had hidden themselves upon sight of the angel standing above them;

Now when Ornan looked up, and saw the angel, he and his four sons hid themselves: for at that time he was thrashing wheat in the floor.

Igitur cum veniret David ad Ornan, conspexit eum Ornan, et processit ei obviam de area, et adoravit eum pronus in terram.

but now, as he saw David approaching, Ornan went to meet him, and did reverence, bowing down to earth.

And as David was coming to Ornan, Ornan saw him, and went out of the thrashingfloor to meet him, and bowed down to him with his face to the ground.

Dixitque ei David: Da mihi locum areæ tuæ, ut ædificem in ea altare Domino: ita ut quantum valet argenti accipias, et cesset plaga a populo.

Give me, David said, this site of thy threshing-floor, to build an altar to the Lord here; ask what price thou wilt, only let the people be plagued no more.

And David said to him: Give me this place of thy thrashingfloor, that I may build therein an altar to the Lord: but thou shalt take of me as much money as it is worth, that the plague may cease from the people.

Dixit autem Ornan ad David: Tolle, et faciat dominus meus rex quodcumque ei placet: sed et boves do in holocaustum, et tribulas in ligna, et triticum in sacrificium: omnia libens præbebo.

Why, said Ornan, let the king’s grace take all he needs and do what he will with it; here are oxen for the sacrifice, here is the sled for kindling-wood, here is corn for the offering; most readily I make the gift of them all.

And Ornan said to David: Take it, and let my lord the king do all that pleaseth him: and moreover the oxen also I give for a holocaust, and the drays for wood, and the wheat for the sacrifice: I will give it all willingly.

Dixitque ei rex David: Nequaquam ita fiet, sed argentum dabo quantum valet: neque enim tibi auferre debeo, et sic offerre Domino holocausta gratuita.

Nay, said the king, I must pay thee their price in money; should I accept them from thee, and offer the Lord a sacrifice which costs me nothing?

And king David said to him: It shall not be so, but I will give thee money as much as it is worth: for I must not take it from thee, and so offer to the Lord holocausts free cost.

Dedit ergo David Ornan pro loco siclos auri justissimi ponderis sexcentos.

So David paid Ornan six hundred golden sicles, duly weighed out, for the price of his land;

So David gave to Ornan for the place, six hundred sicles of gold of just weight.

Et ædificavit ibi altare Domino, obtulitque holocausta et pacifica, et invocavit Dominum; et exaudivit eum in igne de cælo super altare holocausti.

and there he built an altar to the Lord, and brought burnt-sacrifice and welcome-offering. Fire came down from heaven upon his altar of burnt-sacrifice, to prove the divine acceptance of his plea;

And he built there an altar to the Lord: and he offered holocausts, and peace offerings, and he called upon the Lord, and he heard him by sending fire from heaven upon the altar of the holocaust.

Præcepitque Dominus angelo, et convertit gladium suum in vaginam.

and with that, at the Lord’s bidding, the angel put his sword back in its sheath.

And the Lord commanded the angel: and he put up his sword again into the sheath.

Protinus ergo David, videns quod exaudisset eum Dominus in area Ornan Jebusæi, immolavit ibi victimas.

So David, finding that the Lord had granted his prayer upon Ornan’s threshing-floor, offered more victims there.

And David seeing that the Lord had heard him in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, forthwith offered victims there.

Tabernaculum autem Domini, quod fecerat Moyses in deserto, et altare holocaustorum, ea tempestate erat in excelso Gabaon.

As for the tabernacle which Moses made for the Lord in the wilderness, and its altar of burnt-sacrifice, they were still, at this time, in the hill-sanctuary at Gabaon;

But the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the desert, and the altar of holocausts, was at that time in the high place of Gabaon.

Et non prævaluit David ire ad altare ut ibi obsecraret Deum: nimio enim fuerat in timore perterritus, videns gladium angeli Domini.

and to that altar David might not repair, in his need of the Lord’s help, so adread was he of the sword which the angel of the Lord carried.

And David could not go to the altar there to pray to God: for he was seized with an exceeding great fear, seeing the sword of the angel of the Lord.