Discovery Box1 Chronicles 21:14-18 
Context21:14 So the Lord sent a plague through Israel, and 70,000 Israelite men died.
21:15 God sent an angel 1 to ravage 2 Jerusalem. As he was doing so, 3 the Lord watched 4 and relented from 5 his judgment. 6 He told the angel who was destroying, “That’s enough! 7 Stop now!” 8
Now the Lord’s angel was standing near the threshing floor of Ornan 9 the Jebusite. 21:16 David looked up and saw the Lord’s messenger standing between the earth and sky with his sword drawn and in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. David and the leaders, covered with sackcloth, threw themselves down with their faces to the ground. 10 21:17 David said to God, “Was I not the one who decided to number the army? I am the one who sinned and committed this awful deed! 11 As for these sheep – what have they done? O Lord my God, attack me and my family, 12 but remove the plague from your people!” 13
21:18 So the Lord’s messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build 14 an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1 tn The parallel text of 2 Sam 24:15 reports that God sent a plague, while 24:16-17 attributes this to the instrumentality of an angel.
2 tn Or “destroy.”
3 tn Heb “while he was destroying.”
4 tn Or “saw.”
5 tn Or “was grieved because of.”
6 tn Heb “concerning the calamity.”
7 tn For this nuance of the Hebrew word רַב (rav), see BDB 913 s.v. 1.f.
8 tn Heb “Now, drop your hand.”
9 tn In the parallel text in 2 Sam 24:16 this individual is called אֲרַוְנָא (’aravna’, “Aravna”), traditionally “Araunah.” The form of the name found here also occurs in vv. 18-28.
10 tn Heb “and David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.”
11 tn “and doing evil I did evil.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite form of the verb for emphasis.
12 tn Heb “let your hand be on me and on the house of my father.”
13 tn Heb “but on your people not for a plague.”
14 tn Heb “that he should go up to raise up.”
