“David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
1 Chronicles 21:13 (BSB)
Context Reading
11So Gad went and said to David, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You must choose 12between three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies and overtaken by their swords, or three days of the sword of the LORD — days of plague upon the land, with the angel of the LORD ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should reply to Him who sent me.” 13David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.” 14So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented from the calamity, and He said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.