8
And they compassed the whole land; and they arrived at Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9
And Joab gave in the number of the census of the people to the king: and Israel consisted of eight hundred thousand men of might that drew sword; and the men of Juda, five hundred thousand fighting men.
10
And the heart of David smote him after he had numbered the people; and David said to the Lord, I have sinned grievously, O Lord, what I have now done: remove, I pray thee, the iniquity of thy servant, for I have been exceedingly foolish.
11
And David rose early in the morning, and the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, the seer, saying, Go, and speak to David, saying,
12
Thus saith the Lord, I bring three things upon thee: now choose thee one of them, and I will do to thee.
13
And Gad went in to David, and told him, and said to him, Choose to befall thee, whether there shall come upon thee three years famine in thy land; or that thou shouldest flee three months before thine enemies, and they should pursue thee; or that there should be three days mortality in thy land. Now then decide, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
14
And David said to Gad, On every side I am much straitened: let me fall now into the hands of the Lord, for his compassions very many; and let me not fall into the hands of man.
15
So David chose for himself the mortality: and the days of wheat-harvest; and the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from morning till noon, and the plague began among the people; and there died of the people from Dan even to Bersabee seventy thousand men.
16
And the angel of the Lord stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy it, and the Lord repented of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, enough now, withhold thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing-floor of Orna the Jebusite.
17
And David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel smiting the people, and he said, Behold, it is I that have done wrong, but these sheep what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be upon me, and upon my father's house.