3. And Yo’aḇ said to the sovereign, “Even if יהוה your Elohim does add to the people a hundredfold more than there are, and the eyes of my master the sovereign see it, but why does my master the sovereign delight in this matter?”
4. However, the sovereign’s word prevailed against Yo’aḇ and against the commanders of the army. And Yo’aḇ and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the sovereign to register the people of Yisra’ĕl.
5. And they passed over the Yardĕn and camped in Aro‛ĕr, on the right side of the town which is in the midst of the wadi of Gaḏ, and toward Ya‛zĕr.
6. Then they came to Gil‛aḏ and to the land of Taḥtim Ḥoḏshi, and they came to Dan Ya‛an and around to Tsiḏon.
7. And they came to the stronghold of Tsor and to all the cities of the Ḥiwwites and the Kena‛anites, and went out to South Yehuḏah as far as Be’ĕrsheḇa.
8. And when they had gone through all the land, they came to Yerushalayim at the end of nine months and twenty days.
9. And Yo’aḇ gave the number of the registration of the people to the sovereign, and there were in Yisra’ĕl eight hundred thousand brave men who drew the sword, and the men of Yehuḏah were five hundred thousand men.
10. And the heart of Dawiḏ smote him after he had numbered the people. And Dawiḏ said to יהוה, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, I pray, O יהוה, take away the crookedness of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
11. And Dawiḏ rose up in the morning, and the word of יהוה came to the prophet Gaḏ, Dawiḏ’s seer, saying,
12. “Go, and you shall speak to Dawiḏ, ‘Thus said יהוה, “I hold three options before you. Choose one of them, and I do it to you.” ’ ”
13. Gaḏ then came to Dawiḏ and informed him. And he said to him, “Should seven years of scarcity of food come to you in your land? Or would you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or should there be three days’ plague in your land? Now know and see what answer I take back to Him who sent me.”
14. And Dawiḏ said to Gaḏ, “I am in great trouble. Please let us fall into the hand of יהוה, for His compassion is great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
15. And יהוה sent a plague upon Yisra’ĕl from the morning till the appointed time, and from Dan to Be’ĕrsheḇa seventy thousand men of the people died.
16. And the messenger stretched out His hand over Yerushalayim to destroy it, and יהוה relented concerning the evil, and said to the messenger who was destroying the people, “It is enough, now stop Your hand.” And the messenger of יהוה was by the threshing-floor of Arawnah the Yeḇusite.
17. And Dawiḏ spoke to יהוה when he saw the messenger who was smiting the people, and said, “See, I have sinned, and I have done perversely. But these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
18. And Gaḏ came that day to Dawiḏ and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to יהוה on the threshing-floor of Arawnah the Yeḇusite.”