David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Yahweh; for very great are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
And so the angel of the LORD went throughout the land of Israel [beginning to slay the men]: and seventy thousand of them fell by the pestilence [in the three days]. And the angel of the LORD came to Jerusalem to destroy it: and David saw the angel of the LORD with the drawn sword ( 1 Chronicles 21:14-16 ).