21Satan rose up against Israel. He stirred up David to count the men of Israel. ²So David spoke to Joab and the commanders of the troops. He said, “Go! Count the men of Israel from Beersheba all the way to Dan. Report back to me. Then I’ll know how many there are.”

³Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops 100 times. King David, you are my master. Aren’t all of the men under your control? Why would you want me to count them? Do you want to make Israel guilty?”

⁴In spite of what Joab said, the king’s word had more authority than Joab’s word did. So Joab left and went all through Israel. Then he came back to Jerusalem. ⁵Joab reported to David how many fighting men he had counted. In the whole land of Israel there were 1,100,000 men who could use a sword well. That included 470,000 men in Judah.

⁶But Joab didn’t include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in the total number. The king’s command was sickening to Joab. ⁷It was also evil in the sight of God. So he punished Israel.

⁸Then David said to God, “I committed a great sin when I counted Israel’s men. I beg you to take away my guilt. I’ve done a very foolish thing.”

⁹The Lord spoke to David’s prophet Gad. He said, ¹⁰“Go and tell David, ‘The Lord says, “I could punish you in three different ways. Choose one of them for me to use against you.” ’ ”

¹¹So Gad went to David. He said to him, “The Lord says, ‘Take your choice. ¹²You can have three years when there will not be enough food in the land. You can have three months when your enemies will sweep you away. They will catch up with you. They will cut you down with their swords. Or you can have three days when my sword will punish you. That means there would be three days of plague in the land. My angel would strike people down in every part of Israel.’

“So take your pick. Tell me how to answer the One who sent me.”

¹³David said to Gad, “I’m suffering terribly. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord. His mercy is very great. But don’t let me fall into the hands of men.”

¹⁴So the Lord sent a plague on Israel. And 70,000 Israelites died.

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