1 Chronicles 21:16 — Meaning and Application

So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. {Ornan: also called, Araunah}

And 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 {of Israel, who were} clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

And David said unto God, {Is it} not I {that} commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but {as for} these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.

Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.