8. And David said to God I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing; and now, I beseech thee, put away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9. And Jehovah spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10. Go and speak to David saying, Thus saith Jehovah: I offer thee three things; choose one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
11. And Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus saith Jehovah:
12. Choose thee, either three years of famine, or three months to be destroyed before thine adversaries while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee, or three days the sword of Jehovah and the pestilence in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying through all the borders of Israel. And now consider what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
13. And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.
14. And Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, Jehovah beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough; withdraw now thine hand. And the angel of Jehovah stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah stand between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17. And David said to God Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned and done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, Jehovah my God be on me and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be smitten.
18. And the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19. And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of Jehovah.
20. And Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21. And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.