Single lesson
David's Census and the Altar
2 Samuel 24:1–25; 1 Chronicles 21:1–30
This lesson helps students follow the account of David’s census, his sin, God’s judgement, David’s plea, and the altar built on the threshing floor. Students will trace the choices in the passage and respond carefully to what the text says about guilt, mercy, and worship.
Before you teach
In these passages, David orders a census even though Joab objects. After the counting, David confesses that he has sinned. Through Gad, David receives three choices for judgement and asks to fall into Yahweh’s hand. The passage then moves to the threshing floor of Araunah or Ornan, where David builds an altar and the plague stops. Both readings tell the same episode with some different details in each account.
Students will be able to put the passage in order, name David’s key choices and words, and explain from the text that David sinned, Yahweh showed mercy, and David built an altar that cost him something.
Welcome: map the account
5 minExplain that this passage is a serious story about David’s choice, God’s judgement, and God’s mercy. Tell students they will track the story in five steps: the census, David’s confession, the three choices, the stopped destruction, and the altar. Encourage careful observation of the words David, Gad, Joab, Araunah or Ornan, and Yahweh use.
2 Samuel 24:2, 2 Samuel 24:10, 2 Samuel 24:12, 2 Samuel 24:16, 2 Samuel 24:18, 1 Chronicles 21:2, 1 Chronicles 21:8, 1 Chronicles 21:10, 1 Chronicles 21:15, 1 Chronicles 21:18
Read and explain: David orders the census and then confesses
10 minRead 2 Samuel 24:2-10 and 1 Chronicles 21:2-8. Ask students to notice that Joab questions David’s command, yet the king’s word prevails. After the counting, David says, “I have sinned greatly” and calls his action foolish. Chronicles also says God was displeased with this thing. Keep to what the passage states without guessing motives beyond the text.
2 Samuel 24:2, 2 Samuel 24:3, 2 Samuel 24:4, 2 Samuel 24:10, 1 Chronicles 21:2, 1 Chronicles 21:3, 1 Chronicles 21:4, 1 Chronicles 21:7, 1 Chronicles 21:8
Discuss: the three choices and David’s plea
8 minRead the words Gad brings to David. List the three options exactly as given in each account, then compare David’s answer. He says he is in distress and asks to fall into Yahweh’s hand because Yahweh’s mercies are great. Emphasise that David does not deny his sin. Later he says, “I have sinned” and asks that the hand be against him and his father’s house.
2 Samuel 24:12, 2 Samuel 24:13, 2 Samuel 24:14, 2 Samuel 24:17, 1 Chronicles 21:10, 1 Chronicles 21:12, 1 Chronicles 21:13, 1 Chronicles 21:17
Make and respond: sequence cards for the threshing floor
10 minStudents make eight simple sequence cards with short captions: count the people, Joab objects, David confesses, Gad brings three choices, pestilence comes, the angel stops at Jerusalem, David buys the threshing floor, David builds an altar. As they arrange the cards, ask them to add one matching verse reference to each card. Finish by noting that David refuses to offer to Yahweh what costs him nothing.
2 Samuel 24:3, 2 Samuel 24:10, 2 Samuel 24:13, 2 Samuel 24:15, 2 Samuel 24:16, 2 Samuel 24:21, 2 Samuel 24:24, 2 Samuel 24:25, 1 Chronicles 21:3, 1 Chronicles 21:8, 1 Chronicles 21:12, 1 Chronicles 21:14, 1 Chronicles 21:15, 1 Chronicles 21:22, 1 Chronicles 21:24, 1 Chronicles 21:26
Closing: mercy, altar, and careful reflection
7 minRead the ending aloud. David buys the place, builds an altar, and offers burnt offerings and peace offerings. In Samuel, Yahweh is entreated for the land and the plague is removed. In Chronicles, Yahweh answers by fire and commands the angel to put away the sword. Invite students to write one sentence beginning, “This passage shows...” using words from the text.
2 Samuel 24:24, 2 Samuel 24:25, 1 Chronicles 21:24, 1 Chronicles 21:26, 1 Chronicles 21:27, 1 Chronicles 21:28
Questions to explore
What clues in the passage show that David’s command to count the people was wrong?
Look for Joab’s objection, the statement that God was displeased, and David’s own confession that he had sinned greatly and acted foolishly.
2 Samuel 24:3, 2 Samuel 24:10, 1 Chronicles 21:3, 1 Chronicles 21:7, 1 Chronicles 21:8
Why does David choose to fall into Yahweh’s hand rather than man’s hand?
Use David’s own words. He says he is in distress and that Yahweh’s mercies are great or very great.
2 Samuel 24:14, 1 Chronicles 21:13
Why does David insist on paying for the threshing floor and the offering?
Read David’s reply carefully. He says he will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh that cost him nothing.
2 Samuel 24:21, 2 Samuel 24:24, 1 Chronicles 21:22, 1 Chronicles 21:24
Make, think or respond
David’s Census Story Sequence Cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pens or pencils
- Bible text
- scissors
Try it together
- Write eight short event captions from the passage on separate cards.
- Add one verse reference to each card from Samuel or Chronicles.
- Mix the cards and work in pairs to place them in order.
- Check the order by rereading the passage sections aloud.
- Choose one card and write one sentence explaining what it teaches about sin, mercy, or worship.
This activity helps students follow the order of the passage and connect each part of the story to the words of the text.
Adapt for your group
- For younger or less confident readers, prepare the eight event captions in advance and ask students to match them to verse references rather than writing all the cards themselves.
- For stronger readers, ask them to compare one detail from Samuel and one detail from Chronicles for the same step, such as the wording of David’s confession or the details at the altar.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us to take sin seriously, to speak truthfully as David did when he confessed, and to remember your mercy shown in this passage. Teach us to honour you sincerely. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
2 Samuel 24
1 Again Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.”
2 The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people.”
3 Joab said to the king, “Now may Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”
4 Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
5 They passed over the Jordan and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer;
6 then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon,
7 and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba.
8 So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9 Joab gave up the sum of the counting of the people to the king; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
10 David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
11 When David rose up in the morning, Yahweh’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,
12 “Go and speak to David, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.” ’ ”
13 So Gad came to David, and told him, saying, “Shall seven 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.”
14 David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into Yahweh’s hand, for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man’s hand.”
15 So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.
16 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.”
18 Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
19 David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded.
20 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.
21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”
22 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 sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.
23 All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May Yahweh your God accept you.”
24 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 Yahweh my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25 David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.
1 Chronicles 21
1 Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.
2 David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are.”
3 Joab said, “May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”
4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, then came to Jerusalem.
5 Joab gave the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword.
6 But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
7 God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.
8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
9 Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,
10 “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.” ’ ”
11 So Gad came to David and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Take your choice:
12 either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days of the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and Yahweh’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’ ”
13 David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into Yahweh’s hand, for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand.”
14 So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
15 God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 David lifted up his eyes, and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17 David said to God, “Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.”
18 Then Yahweh’s angel commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in Yahweh’s name.
20 Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan, “Sell me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to Yahweh on it. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”
23 Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.”
24 King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
25 So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
26 David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then Yahweh commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29 For Yahweh’s tabernacle, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
30 But David couldn’t go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of Yahweh’s angel.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.
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