Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing-floor of [1]Ornan the Jebusite. 16And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against thy people, that they should be plagued. 18Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD. 20And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons that were with him hid
he repented him] Cf. Gen. vi. 6; 1 Sam. xv. 11, 35; Jon. iii. 10, etc.
It is enough] The sudden cessation of this pestilence has numerous parallels in the history of epidemics.
the threshing-floor of Ornan] The Chronicler makes this threshing-floor the site of the Temple. The author of Sam. is silent on the point. Cp. notes on w. 25, 28, and especially xxii. 1.
Ornan] This is the form of the name throughout this chapter, but in 2 Sam. xxiv. the Ḳerī gives everywhere Araunah. The Kethīb of Sam., however, offers various forms, one of which (to be read Ornah, ver. 16) approximates to the form given in Chron. Variation in reproducing foreign names is common; see note on xviii. 5 (Damascus), and on 2 Chr. xxxvi. 6 (Nebuchadnezzar).
16. saw the angel] The full description of the vision is peculiar to Chron.; cp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 17.
and the elders, clothed in sackcloth] The wearing of sackcloth was doubtless accompanied by fasting; cp. Jon. iii. 5.
17. let thine hand . . . be against me] Cp. Moses' intercession in Ex. xxxii. 32; but Moses was innocent, David guilty.
20. hid themselves] in fear, lest they too should see the angel of Jehovah and their lives be thereby imperilled, cp. Judg. vi. 22, xiii. 22.
- ↑ In 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, &c., Araunah.
