...No, I don't think so. God demanded that something was done about this sin. In the Hebrew Bible context, according to Leviticus, sins could be dealt with by sacrifice, but sometimes various different sacrifices could be made. David had a choice of what sacrifice to make. He chose in effect a human sacrifice, and that sacrifice was enough to atone for the sin. But the sin could have been atoned for in other ways - perhaps by silver and gold, perhaps by animal sacrifices as well.
I tend to think that you're trying to sanitize the account from a modern
Christian perspective. It would appear from the return to the them of
famine/plenty in the resolution of the famine through the harvest this
puts God's imprimitur upon it.
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