2 Samuel 24:10-17

10Now 1David’s heart 2troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “3I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please 4take away the iniquity of Your servant, for 5I have acted very foolishly.” 11When David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to 6the prophet Gad, David’s 7seer, saying, 12“Go and speak to David, ‘Thus the Lord says, “I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.”’” 13So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall 8seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” 14Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord 9for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

15So 10the Lord 11sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people 12from Dan to Beersheba died. 1613When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, 14the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, 15it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but 16these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”