Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their SINs; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.

They rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which the LORD has promised: for we have SINned."

10. David's heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to The LORD, "I have SINned greatly in that which I have done. But now, The LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."

11. When David rose up in the morning, The LORD's word came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

12. "Go and speak to David, 'The LORD says, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'"

13. So 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 foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me."

14. David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let us fall now into The LORD's hand; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man's hand."

15. So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba.

16. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is enough. Now withdraw your hand." The LORD's angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17. David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, "Behold, I have SINned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house."

David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have SINned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O the LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."

For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in the LORD our God's sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of The LORD, and turned their backs.