1 Chronicles 21:17

And David said to God: “Am I not the one who ordered that the people be numbered? It is I who sinned; it is I who did evil. This flock, what does it deserve? O Lord my God, I beg you to let your hand be turned against me and against the house of my father. But let not your people be struck down.”

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

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 evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.

In Context

16And David, lifting up his eyes, saw the Angel of the Lord, standing between heaven and earth with a drawn sword in his hand, turned toward Jerusalem. And both he and those greater by birth, being clothed in haircloth, fell prone upon the ground.

18Then the Angel of the Lord instructed Gad to tell David that he should ascend and build an altar to the Lord God on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Read all of 1 Chronicles 21

Cross References

Exodus 20:5You shall not adore them, nor shall you worship them. I am the Lord your God: strong, zealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

Joshua 22:18And yet you have forsaken the Lord today, and tomorrow his wrath will rage against all of Israel.

2 Samuel 12:10For this reason, the sword shall not withdraw from your house, even perpetually, because you have despised me, and you have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite, so that she may be your wife.’

2 Samuel 24:17And when he had seen the Angel cutting down the people, David said to the Lord: “I am the one who sinned. I have acted iniquitously. These ones who are the sheep, what have they done? I beg you that your hand may be turned against me and against my father’s house.”

1 Chronicles 21:8And David said to God: “I have sinned exceedingly in doing this. I beg you take away the iniquity of your servant. For I have acted unwisely.”

Psalms 51:4All day long your tongue thinks up injustice. Like a sharp razor, you have wrought deceit.

Matthew Henry on 1 Chronicles 21:8-18

David's Numbering the People. ( b. c. 1017.) 7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. 8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. 9 And the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying, 10 Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord , I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. 11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him,… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study 1 Chronicles 21:17