11For when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
12Go and say to David, Thus says the LORD, I offer you three things; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.
13So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? or will you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider, and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.
14And David said to Gad, I am in great distress: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; and do not let me fall into the hand of man.
15So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beersheba.
16And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the evil, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay your hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
17And David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let Your hand, I pray You, be against me, and against my father's house.
18And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, erect an altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.