¹¹ When David got up the next morning, the Lord’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer: ¹² Go and tell David, This is what the Lord says: I’m offering you three punishments. Choose one of them, and that is what I will do to you.

¹³ So Gad went to David and said to him, “Will three^[a] years of famine come on your land? Or will you run from your enemies for three months while they chase you? Or will there be three days of plague in your land? Decide now what answer I should take back to the one who sent me.”

¹⁴ “I’m in deep trouble,” David said to Gad. “Let’s fall into the Lord’s hands because his mercy is great, but don’t let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that very morning until the allotted time. Seventy thousand people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba. ¹⁶ But when the divine messenger stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord regretted doing this disaster and said to the messenger who was destroying the people, “That’s enough! Withdraw your hand.” At that time the Lord’s messenger was by the threshing floor of Araunah from Jebus.

¹⁷ When David saw the messenger who was striking down the people, he said, “I’m the one who sinned! I’m the one who has done wrong. But these sheep—what have they done wrong? Turn your hand against me and my household.”