4. However, the king’s command prevailed over Joab, who departed and traversed all of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem.
5. Joab reported the census figures to David: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in all Israel one million one hundred thousand, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand.
6. Levi and Benjamin, however, he did not include in the census, for the king’s command was repugnant to Joab.
7. This command was evil in the sight of God, and he struck Israel.
8. Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Take away your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”
9. Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, in these words:
10. Go, tell David: Thus says the Lord: I am laying out three options; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.
11. Accordingly, Gad went to David and said to him: “Thus says the Lord: Decide now—
12. will it be three years of famine; or three months of fleeing your enemies, with the sword of your foes ever at your back; or three days of the Lord’s own sword, a plague in the land, with the Lord’s destroying angel in every part of Israel? Now consider: What answer am I to give him who sent me?”
13. Then David said to Gad: “I am in serious trouble. But let me fall into the hand of the Lord, whose mercy is very great, rather than into hands of men.”
14. Therefore the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand Israelites died.
15. God also sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as the angel was on the point of destroying it, the Lord saw and changed his mind about the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, “Enough now! Stay your hand!” The angel of the Lord was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.