¹ In 2 Samuel xxiv. 16, &c., _Araunah_. =15.= _unto Jerusalem_] The peril of the plague extends until Jerusalem itself is threatened. _he repented him_] Compare Genesis vi. 6; 1 Samuel xv. 11, 35; Jonah 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 Samuel is silent on the point. Compare notes on verses 25, 28, and especially xxii. 1. _Ornan_] This is the form of the name throughout this chapter, but in 2 Samuel xxiv. the _Ḳerī_ gives everywhere _Araunah_. The _Kethīb_ of Samuel, however, offers various forms, one of which (to be read _Ornah_, verse 16) approximates to the form given in Chronicles Variation in reproducing foreign names is common; see note on xviii. 5 (_Damascus_), and on 2 Chronicles xxxvi. 6 (_Nebuchadnezzar_). 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. =16.= _saw the angel_] The full description of the vision is peculiar to Chronicles; compare 2 Samuel xxiv. 17. _and the elders, clothed in sackcloth_] The wearing of sackcloth was doubtless accompanied by fasting; compare Jonah iii. 5. 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. =17.= _let thine hand ... be against me_] Compare Moses’ intercession in Exodus xxxii. 32; but Moses was innocent, David guilty. ²⁰And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons that were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. =20.= _hid themselves_] in fear, lest they too should see the angel of Jehovah and their lives be thereby imperilled, compare Judges vi. 22, xiii. 22. ²¹And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. =21.= _was threshing wheat_] By driving oxen over it; compare verse 23. ²²Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing-floor, that I may build thereon an altar unto the LORD: for the full price shalt thou give it me: that the plague may be stayed from the people.