8 Thus they toured the whole land, reaching Jerusalem again after nine months and twenty days.
9 Joab then reported the census figures to the king: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in Israel eight hundred thousand, and in Judah five hundred thousand.
10 Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people. David said to the Lord: “I have sinned grievously in what I have done. Take away, Lord, your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”
11 When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying:
12 Go, tell David: Thus says the Lord: I am offering you three options; choose one of them, and I will give you that.
13 Gad then went to David to inform him. He asked: “Should three years of famine come upon your land; or three months of fleeing from your enemy while he pursues you; or is it to be three days of plague in your land? Now consider well: what answer am I to give to him who sent me?”
14 David answered Gad: “I am greatly distressed. But let us fall into the hand of God, whose mercy is great, rather than into human hands.”