"... In Josephus’ narrative, David rejects both famine and war on moral grounds: they would not affect him, at least not to the same extent as his people: the king would have “much grain stored up” and “heroes around himself as well as fortresses.” Instead, he “requested a suffering common to both kings and subjects”, that is, the plague. Josephus’ formulation highlights David’s moral integrity in taking more personal risk in the punishment of his own mistake with the census and it may be based on Josephus’ somewhat idealized portrait of David. Taken separately, neither the invented theme of moral deliberation, nor the expression “he requested” would be sufficient to claim that Josephus followed the Septuagint plus “and David chose for himself death.” It is quite unclear what the Masoretic text actually implies here ..."