24:8. And having gone through the whole land, after nine months and twenty days, they came to Jerusalem. 24:9. And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people to the king, and there were found of Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword: and of Juda five hundred thousand fighting men. 24:10. But David's heart struck him, after the people were numbered: and David said to the Lord: I have sinned very much in what I have done: but I pray thee, O Lord, to take away the iniquity of thy servant, because I have done exceeding foolishly. David's heart struck him, after the people were numbered... That is he was touched with a great remorse for the vanity and pride which had put him upon numbering the people. 24:11. And David arose in the morning, and the word of the Lord came to Gad the prophet and the seer of David, saying: 24:12. Go, and say to David: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee thy choice of three things, choose one of them which thou wilt, that I may do it to thee. 24:13. And when Gad was come to David, he told him, saying: Either seven years of famine shall come to thee in thy land: or thou shalt flee three months before thy adversaries, and they shall pursue thee: or for three days there shall be a pestilence in thy land. Now therefore deliberate, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. 24:14. And David said to Gad: I am in a great strait: but it is better that I should fall into the hands of the Lord (for his mercies are many) than into the hands of men. 24:15. And the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, from the morning unto the time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan to Bersabee seventy thousand men. 24:16. And when the angel of the Lord had stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord had pity on the affliction, and said to the angel that slew the people: It is enough: now hold thy hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the thrashingfloor of Areuna the Jebusite. 24:17. And David said to the Lord, when he saw the angel striking the people: It is I; I am he that have sinned, I have done wickedly: these that are the sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I beseech thee, be turned against me, and against my father's house. 24:18. And Gad came to David that day, and said: Go up, and build an altar to the Lord in the thrashingfloor of Areuna the Jebusite. 24:19. And David went up according to the word of Gad which the Lord had commanded him. 24:20. And Areuna looked, and saw the king and his servants coming towards him: 24:21. And going out he worshipped the king, bowing with his face to the earth, and said: Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said to him: To buy the thrashingfloor of thee, and build an altar to the Lord, that the plague, which rageth among the people, may cease.