6
Among these the Levites and the sons of Benjamin were not counted, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
7
And God was also displeased with this word; 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, take away the iniquity of thy slave, for I have done very foolishly.
9
And the LORD spoke unto Gad, David’s seer, saying,
10
Go and tell David, saying, Thus hath the LORD said, I offer thee three
things: choose one of them that I will do unto thee.
11
So Gad came to David and said unto him, Thus hath the LORD said, Choose thee,
12
either three years’ famine or three months to be destroyed before thy foes while the sword of thine enemies overtakes
thee or else three days
of the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
13
Then David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait; let me fall now into the hand of the LORD, for very great
are his mercies, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.
14
So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
15
And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented of that evil and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thy hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan, the Jebusite.
16
And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the heaven and the earth, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders
of Israel,
who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.