2 Samuel 24:8–17

⁸So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: ^land there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men ^mthat drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

¹⁰And ⁿDavid’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, ^oI have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have ^pdone very foolishly. ¹¹For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet ^qGad, David’s ^rseer, saying, ¹²Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. ¹³So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall ^sseven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. ¹⁴And 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. ¹⁵So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people ^tfrom Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.

¹⁶And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, ^uthe Lord repented him of the evil, and said to ^wthe angel that ^xdestroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I ^yhave done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house.