David lifted up his eyes, and saw the LORD’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.
Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
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 LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.”