1And the anger of the LORD was kindled to burn in Israel, and he incited David among them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah."2The king said to Joab the commander of the army, who was with him, "Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and number the people, so I will know the number of the people."3And Joab said to the king, "May the LORD your God add to the people like them and like them a hundred times, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it, and may my lord the king not desire this matter."4And the word of the king prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army, and Joab and the commanders of the army went out before the king to oversee the people of Israel.5And they crossed the Jordan and encamped at Aroer, on the right of the city that is in the middle of the great wadi, and toward Jazer.6And they came to Gilead and to the land of the Lowlands of New Moons, and they came to Dan, and they went around to Sidon.7And they came to the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites, and they went out to the Negeb of Judah, Beersheba.8They traversed all the land and came, at the end of nine months and twenty days, to Jerusalem.9And Joab gave the number of the people to the king. Israel had eight hundred thousand men of might who drew the sword, and Judah five hundred thousand men.10And David's heart struck him after this—he had numbered the people. David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, please pass over the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”11David arose in the morning, and the word of the LORD came to Gad the prophet, David's seer, saying.12Go and speak to David. Thus says the LORD: I am giving three options upon you. Choose one for yourself from them, and I will do it to you.13And Gad came to David and made it known to him and said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or three months fleeing before your enemy while he pursues you? Or three days of pestilence in your land? Now know and see what word I shall return to the one who sent me."14And David said to Gad, "It is very severe to me; let it fall please in the hand of the LORD, for many are his compassions, and in the hand of man may I not fall."15The LORD sent a plague on Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men died from the people, from Dan to Beer-sheba.16And the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and the LORD relented concerning the calamity and said to the angel, the destroyer in the midst of the people, "It is enough; now relax your hand." And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.17And David said to the LORD when he saw the angel striking the people, and he said, "Behold, I have sinned and I have acted perversely, but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand be now against me and against my father's house."