15. And Elohim sent a messenger to Yerushalayim to destroy it. And as he was destroying, יהוה saw, and relented about the evil, and said to the messenger who was destroying, “Enough! Now stop your hand.” And the messenger of יהוה was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Yeḇusite.
16. And Dawiḏ lifted his eyes and saw the messenger of יהוה standing between earth and the heavens, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Yerushalayim. And Dawiḏ and the elders, wrapped in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17. And Dawiḏ said to Elohim, “Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed. But these, the sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O יהוה my Elohim, be against me and my father’s house, but not against Your people, to be plagued.”
18. And the messenger of יהוה commanded Gaḏ to say to Dawiḏ that Dawiḏ should go up to raise an altar to יהוה on the threshing-floor of Ornan the Yeḇusite.
19. So Dawiḏ went up at the word of Gaḏ, which he had spoken in the Name of יהוה.
20. And Ornan turned and saw the messenger. And his four sons with him hid themselves, and Ornan was threshing wheat.
21. And Dawiḏ came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw Dawiḏ, and he went out from the threshing-floor, and bowed down to Dawiḏ with his face to the ground.