ACV(i)
12 either three years of famine, or three months to be consumed before thy foes while the sword of thine enemies overtakes thee, or else three days the sword of LORD, even pestilence in the land, and the agent of LORD destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.
13 And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait. Let me fall, I pray, into the hand of LORD, for his mercies are very great, and let me not fall into the hand of man.
14 So LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15 And God sent an agent to Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was about to destroy, LORD beheld, and he relented of the evil, and said to the destroying agent, It is enough. Now halt thy hand. And the agent of LORD was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the agent of LORD standing between earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
17 And David said to God, Is it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is who have sinned and done very badly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house, but not against thy people, that they should be plagued.