16
David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD standing between eretz and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Yerushalayim. Then David and the Zakenim, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17
David said to God, Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.
18
Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to tell David, that David should go up, and raise an altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Ornan the Yevusi.
19
David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD.
20
Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.