7
Then they came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out towards the Negev from Judah,
even to Beersheba.
8
So when they had gone through all the land, they returned to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9
And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king, and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword, and the men of Judah
were five hundred thousand men.
10
And David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in having done this; but now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy slave, for I have done very foolishly.
11
And in the morning when David had risen, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,
12
Go and say unto David, Thus hath the LORD said, I offer thee three
things: choose one of them, which I will do unto thee.
13
So Gad came to David and told him and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months before thy enemies while they pursue thee? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? Now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
14
Then David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait; let us fall now into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies
are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man.
15
So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
16
And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD himself repented of that evil and said to the angel that was destroying the people, It is enough; stay now thy hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingfloor of Araunah, the Jebusite.
17
And David spoke unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people and said, I have sinned, I committed the iniquity, but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me and against my father’s house.