¹ `And thou hast made an altar [for] making perfume; [of] shittim wood thou dost make it;

² a cubit its length, and a cubit its breadth, (it is square), and two cubits its height; its horns [are] of the same.

³ `And thou hast overlaid it with pure gold, its top, and its sides round about, and its horns; and thou hast made to it a crown of gold round about;

⁴ and two rings of gold thou dost make to it under its crown; on its two ribs thou dost make [them], on its two sides, and they have become places for staves, to bear it with them.

⁵ `And thou hast made the staves of shittim wood, and hast overlaid them with gold;

⁶ and thou hast put it before the vail, which [is] by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy-seat which [is] over the testimony, whither I am met with thee.

⁷ `And Aaron hath made perfume on it, perfume of spices, morning by morning; in his making the lamps right he doth perfume it,

⁸ and in Aaron's causing the lamps to go up between the evenings, he doth perfume it; a continual perfume before Jehovah to your generations.

⁹ `Ye do not cause strange perfume to go up upon it, and burnt-offering, and present, and libation ye do not pour out on it;

¹⁰ and Aaron hath made atonement on its horns, once in a year, by the blood of the sin-offering of atonements; once in a year doth he make atonement for it, to your generations; it [is] most holy to Jehovah.'

¹¹ And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

¹² `When thou takest up the sum of the sons of Israel for their numbers, then they have given each an atonement [for] his soul to Jehovah in their being numbered, and there is no plague among them in their being numbered.

¹³ `This they do give, every one passing over unto those numbered, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel [is] twenty gerahs); half a shekel [is] the heave-offering to Jehovah;

¹⁴ every one passing over unto those numbered, from a son of twenty years and upwards, doth give the heave-offering of Jehovah;

¹⁵ the rich doth not multiply, and the poor doth not diminish from the half-shekel, to give the heave-offering of Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls.

¹⁶ `And thou hast taken the atonement-money from the sons of Israel, and hast given it for the service of the tent of meeting; and it hath been to the sons of Israel for a memorial before Jehovah, to make atonement for your souls.'

¹⁷ And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

¹⁸ `And thou hast made a laver of brass (and its base of brass), for washing; and thou hast put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and hast put water there;

¹⁹ and Aaron and his sons have washed at it their hands and their feet,

²⁰ in their going in unto the tent of meeting they wash [with] water, and die not; or in their drawing nigh unto the altar to minister, to perfume a fire-offering to Jehovah,

²¹ then they have washed their hands and their feet, and they die not, and it hath been to them a statute age-during, to him and to his seed to their generations.'

²² And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

²³ `And thou, take to thyself principal spices, wild honey five hundred [shekels]; and spice-cinnamon, the half of that, two hundred and fifty; and spice-cane two hundred and fifty;

²⁴ and cassia five hundred, by the shekel of the sanctuary, and olive oil a hin;

²⁵ and thou hast made it a holy anointing oil, a compound mixture, work of a compounder; it is a holy anointing oil.

²⁶ `And thou hast anointed with it the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony,

²⁷ and the table and all its vessels, and the candlestick and its vessels, and the altar of perfume,

²⁸ and the altar of burnt-offering and all its vessels, and the laver and its base;

²⁹ and thou hast sanctified them, and they have been most holy; all that is coming against them is holy;

³⁰ and Aaron and his sons thou dost anoint, and hast sanctified them for being priests to Me.

³¹ `And unto the sons of Israel thou dost speak, saying, A holy anointing oil is this to Me, to your generations;

³² on flesh of man it is not poured, and with its proper proportion ye make none like it; it [is] holy; it is holy to you;

³³ a man who compoundeth [any] like it, or who putteth of it on a stranger -- hath even been cut off from his people.'

³⁴ And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Take to thee spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, spices and pure frankincense; they are part for part;

³⁵ and thou hast made it a perfume, a compound, work of a compounder, salted, pure, holy;

³⁶ and thou hast beaten [some] of it small, and hast put of it before the testimony, in the tent of meeting, whither I am met with thee; most holy it is to you.

³⁷ `As to the perfume which thou makest, with its proper proportion ye do not make to yourselves, holy it is to thee to Jehovah;

³⁸ a man who maketh [any] like it -- to be refreshed by it -- hath even been cut off from his people.'

¹ Again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, "Go, number 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 number 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 number 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 numbering 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 that he had numbered 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, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

¹² "Go and speak to David, 'Thus says Yahweh, "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, and said to him, "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 the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into the hand of man."

¹⁵ So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

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 stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh 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 instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood:

²³ all this, 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 stayed from Israel.