7. going to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and ending up in the Negeb of Judah, at Beer-sheba.
8. Thus they toured the whole land, reaching Jerusalem again after nine months and twenty days.
9. Joab then reported the census figures to the king: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in Israel eight hundred thousand, and in Judah five hundred thousand.
10. Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people. David said to the Lord: “I have sinned grievously in what I have done. Take away, Lord, your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”
11. When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying:
12. Go, tell David: Thus says the Lord: I am offering you three options; choose one of them, and I will give you that.
13. Gad then went to David to inform him. He asked: “Should three years of famine come upon your land; or three months of fleeing from your enemy while he pursues you; or is it to be three days of plague in your land? Now consider well: what answer am I to give to him who sent me?”
14. David answered Gad: “I am greatly distressed. But let us fall into the hand of God, whose mercy is great, rather than into human hands.”