¹² I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I ^(A)will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

¹⁰ Now therefore ^(A)let me alone, that ^(B)my wrath may burn hot against them and ^(C)I may consume them, in order that ^(D)I may make a great nation of you.”

¹² “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer^[a] you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” ¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall ^(A)three^[b] years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” ¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, ^(B)for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

^15 (C)So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from ^(D)Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men.

David's Census

24 ^(A)(B)Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ^(C)“Go, number Israel and Judah.”

⁹ Nevertheless, ^(A)those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

⁴⁶ And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for ^(A)wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” ⁴⁷ So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸ And he stood between the dead and the living, and ^(B)the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹ Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, ^(C)besides those who died in the affair of Korah.

³ Then they said, “The ^(A)God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”