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11 When David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, saying, 12 Go and say to David, Thus says the LORD: I will bring upon you one of three calamities; choose one of them, that I may do it to you. 13 So the prophet Gad came to David and said to him, These are the calamities which may come upon you: there shall seven years of famine come in your land, or you shall flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you, or there shall be three days of pestilence in your land. Now therefore say what answer I shall return to him who sent me to you. 14 Then David answered and said to the prophet Gad, I am greatly distressed; it is better for me to be punished by the hand of the LORD our God; for his mercies are great: let us not be punished by the hand of men. 15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the evening; and there died of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. 16 And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD restrained the angel of death who was destroying the people, and said to him, You have destroyed enough, stay now your hand. And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Aran the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who smote the people, and said to the angel, I have sinned and I have given provocation; but these innocent sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand be against me, and against my father's house. 18 And Gad the prophet came that day to David and said to him, Go up and build an altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Aran the Jebusite. 19 And David went up, according to the word of Gad, as the LORD had commanded him. 2 Samuel 24:11-19, Lamsa Bible. Public domain.
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