12. three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes with the sword of your enemy overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord — a plague on the land, the angel of the Lord bringing destruction to the whole territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I should take back to the One who sent me.”
13. David answered Gad, “I’m in anguish. Please, let me fall into the Lord’s hands because His mercies are very great, but don’t let me fall into human hands.”
14. So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and 70,000 Israelite men died.
15. Then God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but when the angel was about to destroy the city, the Lord looked, relented concerning the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough, withdraw your hand now! ” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16. When David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell down with their faces to the ground.
17. David said to God, “Wasn’t I the one who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? My Lord God, please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s family, but don’t let the plague be against Your people.”
18. So the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19. David went up at Gad’s command spoken in the name of the Lord.
20. Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel. His four sons, who were with him, hid themselves.
21. David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground.
22. Then David said to Ornan, “Give me this threshing-floor plot so that I may build an altar to the Lord on it. Give it to me for the full price, so the plague on the people may be stopped.”
23. Ornan said to David, “Take it! My lord the king may do whatever he wants. See, I give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering — I give it all.”