1 Chronicles 21:15-30

God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but when the angel started to destroy it, the LORD saw it and felt very sorry about the terrible things that had happened. So he said to the angel who was destroying, “That is enough! Put down your arm!” The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD in the sky, holding his sword drawn and pointed at Jerusalem. Then David and the elders bowed facedown on the ground. They were wearing rough cloth to show their grief. David said to God, “I am the one who sinned and did wrong. I gave the order for the people to be counted. These people only followed me like sheep. They did nothing wrong. LORD my God, please punish me and my family, but stop the terrible disease that is killing your people.” Then the angel of the LORD told Gad to tell David that he should build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. So David did what Gad told him to do, in the name of the LORD. Araunah was separating the wheat from the straw. When he turned around, he saw the angel. Araunah’s four sons who were with him hid. David came to Araunah, and when Araunah saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed facedown on the ground before David. David said to him, “Sell me your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD here. Then the terrible disease will stop. Sell it to me for the full price.” Araunah said to David, “Take this threshing floor. My master the king, do anything you want. Look, I will also give you oxen for the whole burnt offerings, the threshing boards for the wood, and wheat for the grain offering. I give everything to you.” But King David answered Araunah, “No, I will pay the full price for the land. I won’t take anything that is yours and give it to the LORD. I won’t offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.” So David paid Araunah about fifteen pounds of gold for the place. David built an altar to the LORD there and offered whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. David prayed to the LORD, and he answered him by sending down fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. Then the LORD commanded the angel to put his sword back into its holder. When David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah, he offered sacrifices there. The Holy Tent that Moses made while the Israelites were in the desert and the altar of burnt offerings were in Gibeon at the place of worship. But David could not go to the Holy Tent to speak with God, because he was afraid of the angel of the LORD and his sword.