¹³ So Gad went to David, told him the choices, and asked him, “Do you want three^[a] years of famine to come on your land, to flee from your foes three months while they pursue you, or to have a plague in your land three days? Now, consider carefully^[b] what answer I should take back to the one who sent me.”

¹⁴ David answered Gad, “I have great anxiety. Please, let us fall into the Lord’s hands because his mercies are great,^(A) but don’t let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men died.