1. Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.
2. David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are.”
3. Joab said, “May the Lord make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”
4. Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, then came to Jerusalem.
5. Joab gave up the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew a sword.
6. But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin amongst them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
7. God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.
8. David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
9. The Lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,
10. “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘the Lord says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”
11. So Gad came to David, and said to him, “the Lord says, ‘Take your choice:
12. either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, and the Lord’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’”
13. David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the Lord’s hand; for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand.”
14. So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
15. God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, the Lord saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” the Lord’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16. David lifted up his eyes, and saw the Lord’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17. David said to God, “Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me, and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.”