6. Joab did not count the tribes of Levi and Benjamin because he did not like King David’s order.
7. David had done a bad thing in God’s sight, so God punished Israel.
8. Then David said to God, “I have done something very foolish. I have committed a terrible sin by counting the Israelites. Now, I beg you to take the sin away from me, your servant.”
9-10. Gad was David’s seer. The Lord said to Gad, “Go and tell David: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to give you three choices. You must choose one of them. Then I will punish you the way you choose.’”
11-12. Then Gad went to David. He said to David, “The Lord says, ‘David, choose which punishment you want: three years without enough food, or three months of running away from your enemies while they use their swords to chase you, or three days of punishment from the Lord. Terrible sicknesses will spread through the country, and the Lord’S angel will go through Israel destroying the people.’ David, God sent me. Now, you must decide which answer I will give to him.”
13. David said to Gad, “I am in trouble! I don’t want some man to decide my punishment. The Lord is very merciful, so let him decide how to punish me.”
14. So the Lord sent terrible sicknesses to Israel, and 70,000 people died.
15. God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But when the angel started to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord saw it and felt sorry for all the suffering. So he said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Stop! That is enough!” This happened when the angel of the Lord was standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
16. David looked up and saw the Lord’S angel in the sky. The angel was holding his sword over the city of Jerusalem. Then David and the elders bowed with their faces touching the ground. They were wearing the special clothes to show their sadness.
17. David said to God, “I am the one who sinned. I gave the order for the people to be counted! I was wrong. The Israelites did not do anything wrong. Lord my God, punish me and my family, but stop the terrible sicknesses that are killing your people.”