Thomson(i)
1 Now when an adversary stood up in Israel and persuaded David to number Israel,
2 and king David said to Joab and the chiefs of the army, Go, number Israel from Dan to Bersabee, and let me know the number of them,
3 Joab replied, The Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as there are. and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. They are all servants to my lord. Why doth my lord seek this? May it not be a cause of trespass to Israel?
4 But the king's determination prevailed against Joab, so he went forth, and having passed through all Israel, and come to Jerusalem,
5 he gave David an account of the review of the people, and the whole number of the men of Israel who drew a sword, w r as eleven hundred thousand, and the children of Juda were four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew a sword.
6 But he did not number Levi and Benjamin among them. Because the king's word prevailed over Joab,
7 and the thing was evil in the sight of God, therefore he smote Israel.
8 When David said to God, I have sinned greatly in doing this, now therefore take away, I beseech thee, this wickedness of thy servant, for I have acted very foolishly
9 the Lord spoke to Gad, the seer, saying,
10 Go, and speak to David, and say, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things, chuse for thyself one of them that I may do it to thee
11 So Gad went to David and said to him, Thus saith the Lord, Chuse for thyself
12 either three years of famine; or three months to flee before thy enemies while the sword of thy enemies is destroying thee; or the sword of the Lord and pestilence for three days throughout the land, while an angel of the Lord is making havock in all the inheritance of Israel. Now therefore consider What answer shall I make to him who sent me?
13 Thereupon David said to Gad, Very hard indeed to me are all the three. Let me however fall into the hands of the Lord, for his tender mercies are exceeding great. But let me not fall into the hands of men.
14 So the Lord sent a pestilence through Israel, and there fell of the Israelites seventy thousand men.
15 And when God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, and he was making havock, the Lord looked and relented at the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, Let this suffice thee. Stay thy hand. Now the angel of the Lord was standing at the threshing floor of Orna, the Jebusite.
16 And when David raised his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, he and all the elders being clad in sackcloth, fell on their faces,
17 and David said to God, Was it not I who ordered the numbering of the people? I indeed am the sinner. It is I who committed the sin. But as for this flock, what have they done? Lord my God, Let thy hand be upon me, and on my father's house, and not on this thy people, O Lord, to destruction.