⁷ But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. ⁸ David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please remove the guilt of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”^{(A) 9} The Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹⁰ “Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer you; choose one of them, so that I may do it to you.”^{(B) 11} So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Take your choice: ¹² either three years of famine; or three months of devastation by your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence on the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.”^{(C) 13} Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great, but let me not fall into human hands.”^(D)

¹⁴ So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand persons fell in Israel.^{(E) 15} And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but when he was about to destroy it, the Lord took note and relented concerning the calamity; he said to the destroying angel, “Enough! Stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.^{(F) 16} David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.^{(G) 17} And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the command to count the people? It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house, but do not let your people be plagued!”^(H)