9. And the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying,
10. Go and speak unto David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
11. So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Take which thou wilt;
12. either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
13. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
14. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out ever Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
17. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against thy people, that they should be plagued.