12 You may choose three years of famine, three months of destruction by the sword of your enemies, or three days of severe plague as the angel of the lord brings devastation throughout the land of Israel. Decide what answer I should give the lord who sent me.”
13 “I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied to Gad. “But let me fall into the hands of the lord, for his mercy is very great. Do not let me fall into human hands.”
14 So the lord sent a plague upon Israel, and 70,000 people died as a result.
15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But just as the angel was preparing to destroy it, the lord relented and said to the death angel, “Stop! That is enough!” At that moment the angel of the lord was standing by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and saw the angel of the lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, reaching out over Jerusalem. So David and the leaders of Israel put on burlap to show their deep distress and fell face down on the ground.
17 And David said to God, “I am the one who called for the census! I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent as sheep—what have they done? O lord my God, let your anger fall against me and my family, but do not destroy your people.”
18 Then the angel of the lord told Gad to instruct David to go up and build an altar to the lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.