1And again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah."2So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan as far as Beersheba, and register the people, so that I may know the number of the people.3But Joab said to the king, May the LORD your God multiply the people a hundred times over what they now are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it; yet why does my lord the king take pleasure in this matter?4Nevertheless the king's word prevailed over Joab and over the commanders of the army, so Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel.5They crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, on the south side of the city that lies in the middle of the valley of Gad, and then to Jazer.6They came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; then they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon.7They came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites, and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba.8They traveled through the whole land and returned to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.9Joab delivered the number of the registered people to the king: Israel had eight hundred thousand men able to draw the sword, and Judah had five hundred thousand men.10After he had numbered the people, David's heart condemned him, and David said to the LORD, I have sinned greatly by doing this; now, O LORD, please take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.11David rose early in the morning, and the word of the LORD came to Gad the prophet, David's seer, saying,12Go and tell David, Thus says the LORD: I am offering you three choices; select one of them for yourself, and I will carry it out for you.13Gad came to David and reported this to him; he said, Shall seven years of famine come upon your land, or shall you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you, or shall three days of plague occur in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I should return to the one who sent me.14David answered Gad, I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are great, but let me not fall into human hands.15So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beersheba.16When the messenger stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the disaster and said to the destroying messenger among the people, Enough; now withdraw your hand. The messenger of the LORD was then standing by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.17When David saw the messenger striking the people, he said to the LORD, Behold, I have sinned and I have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house.