8. So after nine months and twenty days they returned to Jerusalem, having travelled through the whole country.
9. They reported to the king the total number of men capable of military service: 800,000 in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.
10. But after David had taken the census, his conscience began to trouble him, and he said to the Lord, “I have committed a terrible sin in doing this! Please forgive me. I have acted foolishly.”
11-12. The Lord said to Gad, David's prophet, “Go and tell David that I am giving him three choices. I will do whichever he chooses.” The next morning, after David got up,
13. Gad went to him, told him what the Lord had said, and asked, “Which is it to be? Three years of famine in your land or three months of running away from your enemies or three days of an epidemic in your land? Now think it over, and tell me what answer to take back to the Lord.”
14. David answered, “I am in a desperate situation! But I don't want to be punished by human beings. Let the Lord himself be the one to punish us, for he is merciful.”
15. So the Lord sent an epidemic on Israel, which lasted from that morning until the time that he had chosen. From one end of the country to the other 70,000 Israelites died.
16. When the Lord's angel was about to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord changed his mind about punishing the people and said to the angel who was killing them, “Stop! That's enough!” The angel was by the threshing place of Araunah, a Jebusite.
17. David saw the angel who was killing the people, and said to the Lord, “I am the guilty one. I am the one who did wrong. What have these poor people done? You should punish me and my family.”
18. That same day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up to Araunah's threshing place and build an altar to the Lord.”
19. David obeyed the Lord's command and went as Gad had told him.