2 Samuel 24:10

DAVID ACKNOWLEDGED HIS SIN AND IS PUNISHED

"But David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly." And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, "Go and say to David, 'Thus says the Lord, three things I offer you; choose one of them that I may do it to you.'" So Gad came to David and told him,, `Shall three years of famine come to you in the land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days pestilence in the land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.' Then David said to God, `I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of men.'"

Keil's analysis of this whole situation is as follows:

"Because David was about to boast proudly and to glory in the number of the people, God determined to punish him by reducing their number by famine, war or pestilence. At the same time the people themselves had sinned grievously against God and their king, through two rebellions headed by Absalom and Sheba."[13] Thus it was not immoral on God's part that he punished both the sinful king and the sinful people. They both fully deserved it.

As Willis observed, "The intensity and severity of the three proposed punishments grew proportionately as their duration diminished."[14]