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.