16And the angel stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to lay it desolate. but the Lord was sorry for the calamity, and said to the angel who smote the people, "Enough, now lower thy hand." And the angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Ornas the Jebusite.

17When David saw an angel smite the people, David said to the Lord, "Behold, I have sinned, I [the shepherd] have done wrong. And these sheep, what did they do? let thy hand be turned upon me, and upon my father's house.

18Gad came to David that day and said, "Go and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornah the Jebusite."

19And David went according to the word of Gad [the prophet], as the Lord had commanded.

20And Ornah looked and saw the king and his servants coming to him, and Ornah went out and bowed down to the king with his face to the ground.

21Then Ornah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "Buy from you a threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord, so that the defeat of the people may cease."

22Then Ornah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and sacrifice whatever he pleases." These are the oxen for burnt offerings, and the wagons, and the harness of the oxen for the wood.

23All this, O king, Ornah gives to the king. And Ornah said to the king, The Lord thy God be merciful to thee.

24But the king said to Orna, "No, I will pay you what is worth, and I will not offer to the Lord my God a sacrifice taken freely." And David bought the threshing floor and oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

25So David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. [Then Solomon spread out the altar, because it was small.] And the Lord was propitiated over the country, and the defeat of the Israelites ceased.