Study Desk

And, when David arose in the morning, the word of Yahweh, had come unto Gad the prophet, the seer of David, saying:

Go and speak unto David - Thus, saith Yahweh, Three things, do I offer thee, - choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

So Gad came in unto David, and told him, - and said to him: Shall there come unto thee seven years of famine in thy land? Or, for three months, wilt thou flee before thine enemies while, they, pursue thee? Or shall there be, for three days, pestilence in thy land? Now, consider and see, what, answer, I shall return to him that sent me.

And David said unto Gad - I am in a great strait, - let us fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Yahweh, for, manifold, are, his compassions, but, into the hand of man, let me not fall.

So Yahweh sent forth a pestilence throughout Israel, from the morning even unto the time appointed, - and there died of the people, from Dan even unto Beer-sheba, seventy thousand men.

But, when the messenger stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem, to destroy it, then relented Yahweh as to the evil, and he said to the messenger who was destroying the people - Enough! now, stay thy hand. And, the messenger of Yahweh, was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

Then said David unto Yahweh, when he saw the messenger who was smiting the people, yea he said - Lo! I, have sinned, and, I, have done perversely, but what have, these sheep, done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against the house of my father!