2 Samuel 24:5–15

⁵After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer,^p south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer.^{q 6}They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon.^{r 7}Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre^s and all the towns of the Hivites^t and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba^u in the Negev^v of Judah.

⁸After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.^w

¹⁰David was conscience-stricken^x after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned^y greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.^z”

¹¹Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad^a the prophet, David’s seer:^{b 12}“Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’ ”

¹³So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three^b years of famine^c in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague^d in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

¹⁴David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy^e is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁵So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.^f