9
And Joab presented the sum of the number of the people to 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 that he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, I have sinned greatly in what I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
11
For when David had risen in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
12
Go and say to David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three [things]; choose thee one of them, that I may [do it] to thee.
13
So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come upon thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thy enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? Now consider, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
14
And David said to 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 even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.
16
And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thy hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing-place of Araunah the Jebusite.
17
And David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house.
18
And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to the LORD in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
19
And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.