1 Chronicles 21:15-30

God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying it, the LORD looked, and relented concerning the catastrophe and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough; now remove your hand [of judgment].” And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Then David raised his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered in sackcloth, fell on their faces. David said to God, “Is it not I who commanded the people to be counted? I am the one who has sinned and done evil; but as for these sheep [the people of Israel], what have they done? O LORD my God, please let Your hand be against me and my father’s house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.” Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad’s word, which he spoke in the name of the LORD. Now Ornan was threshing wheat, and he turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw him, and went out from the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of this threshing floor, so that I may build an altar on it to the LORD. You shall charge me the full price for it, so that the plague may be averted from the people.” Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. See, I will give you the oxen also for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges (heavy wooden platforms) for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I give it all.” But King David said to Ornan, “No, I will certainly pay the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.” So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site. [2 Chr 3:1] Then David built an altar to the LORD there and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called on the LORD, and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. Then the LORD commanded the [avenging] angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the LORD.