14 David said to Gad, “I am very distressed. Let us fall by the hand of the Lord, for His mercy is great. May I not fall by the hand of man.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time. Seventy thousand men from the people died, from Dan to Beersheba.
16 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity. He said to the angel who was annihilating the people, “Enough! Now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17 On seeing the angel who was striking down the people, David said to the Lord, “I am the one who has sinned and I am the one who has done wrong. These sheep, what have they done? Please, let your hand be against me and against the house of my father.”
18 Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
19 So David went up according to the word of Gad, as the Lord commanded.
20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out and bowed low to the king with his face on the ground.