3. Joab resisted: “May God multiply his people by hundreds! Don’t they all belong to my master the king? But why on earth would you do a thing like this—why risk getting Israel into trouble with God?”
8. Then David prayed, “I have sinned badly in what I have just done, substituting statistics for trust; forgive my sin—I’ve been really stupid.”
13. David told Gad, “They’re all terrible! But I’d rather be punished by God whose mercy is great, than fall into human hands.”