And the king said to Ioab, commander of the force that was with him, "Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Bersabee, and muster the people, so that I may know the number of the people."
And Ioab said to the king, "May the Lord your God add to the people as many again as they are, and a hundredfold as many as they are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But my lord the king — why does he desire this thing?"
But the word of the king prevailed over Ioab and over the commanders of the army, and Ioab and the commanders of the force went out from before the king to muster the people of Israel.
And Ioab gave the number of the mustering of the people to the king: Israel was eight hundred thousand men of valor who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand fighting men.
And David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, "I have sinned exceedingly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, take away, I pray, the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly."
"Go and speak to David, saying: Thus says the Lord, Three things am I holding up against you; choose for yourself one of them, and I will do it to you."
So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, "Choose for yourself what is to happen: whether three years of famine should come upon you in your land, or three months of fleeing before your enemies while they pursue you, or that there be three days of death in your land. Now therefore consider and see what answer I am to bring back to him who sent me."
And David said to Gad, "I am hard pressed on every side exceedingly. Let me fall, then, into the hand of the Lord, for his compassions are very many; but into the hands of man let me not fall." And David chose for himself the death.
And they were the days of the wheat harvest. And the Lord sent death upon Israel from the morning until the hour of the midday meal, and the plague began among the people, and there died of the people, from Dan even to Bersabee, seventy thousand men.
And the angel of God stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and the Lord relented over the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying among the people, "It is enough now; relax your hand." And the angel of the Lord was beside the threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite.
And David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel striking among the people, and he said, "Look, it is I who have done wrong, and I am the shepherd who did evil; but these, the sheep — what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against the house of my father."
And Orna looked down and saw the king and his servants passing by above him; and Orna went out and did obeisance to the king with his face to the ground.
And Orna said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To acquire the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be held back from over the people."
And Orna said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up to the Lord what is good in his eyes. Look, here are the oxen for a whole burnt offering, and the wheels and the gear of the oxen for wood."
And the king said to Orna, "No, rather I will surely acquire it from you at a price; I will not offer up to the Lord my God whole burnt offerings that cost me nothing." And David acquired the threshing floor and the oxen for silver, fifty shekels.
And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered up whole burnt offerings and peace offerings. And afterward Solomon made additions to the altar, because it was small at the first. And the Lord heeded the land, and the plague was held back from over Israel.