15. God also sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as the angel was on the point of destroying it, the Lord saw and changed his mind about the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, “Enough now! Stay your hand!” The angel of the Lord was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16. When David raised his eyes, he saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, drawn sword in hand stretched out against Jerusalem. David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell face down,
17. and David prayed to God: “Was it not I who ordered the census of the people? I am the one who sinned, I did this wicked thing. But these sheep, what have they done? O Lord, my God, strike me and my father’s family, but do not afflict your people with this plague!”
18. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David to go up and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19. David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord.
20. Ornan turned around and saw the king; his four sons who were with him hid themselves, but Ornan kept on threshing wheat.