11 So Gaḏ came to Dawiḏ and said to him, “Thus said יהוה, ‘Choose for yourself
12 either three years of scarcity of food, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of יהוה, even the plague in the land, with the messenger of יהוה destroying throughout all the borders of Yisra’ĕl.’ And now consider what answer I am to return to Him who sent me.”
13 And Dawiḏ said to Gaḏ, “I am in great trouble. Please let me fall into the hand of יהוה, for His compassion is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
14 And יהוה sent a plague upon Yisra’ĕl, and seventy thousand men of Yisra’ĕl fell.
15 And Elohim sent a messenger to Yerushalayim to destroy it. And as he was destroying, יהוה saw, and relented about the evil, and said to the messenger who was destroying, “Enough! Now stop your hand.” And the messenger of יהוה was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Yeḇusite.
16 And Dawiḏ lifted his eyes and saw the messenger of יהוה standing between earth and the heavens, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Yerushalayim. And Dawiḏ and the elders, wrapped in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17 And Dawiḏ said to Elohim, “Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed. But these, the sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O יהוה my Elohim, be against me and my father’s house, but not against Your people, to be plagued.”