1 Chronicles 21:15–28

¹⁵And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was about to destroy it, Yahweh saw and ^1arelented concerning the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough! Now relax your hand.” And the angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of ²Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁶Then David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, ^acovered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.

¹⁷And David said to God, “Is it not I who ¹commanded to number the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and done a great evil; ^abut these sheep, what have they done? O Yahweh my God, please let Your hand be against me and my father’s household, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.”

David Erects an Altar

^18aThen the angel of Yahweh said to Gad to say to David, that David should go up and erect an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁹So David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh.

²⁰Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat.

²¹Then David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and bowed his ¹face to the ground ²before David.

²²Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the ¹site of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to Yahweh; for the full price you shall give it to me, that the plague may be checked from being upon the people.”

²³And Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give everything.”

²⁴However, King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not lift up what is yours to Yahweh, or offer a burnt offering ¹which costs me nothing.”

²⁵So ^aDavid gave Ornan ¹600 shekels of gold by weight for the ²site.

²⁶Then David built there an altar to Yahweh and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to Yahweh and ^aHe answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷Then Yahweh spoke to the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.

²⁸At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.