17. David said to God, “Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? 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 Lord’s angel commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19. David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the Lord’s name.
20. Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.