The angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem - By what means this destruction took place, we know not: it appears that an angel was employed in it, and that this minister of Divine justice actually appeared as an object. of sight; for it is said, 2 Samuel 24:17, When David saw the angel that smote the people, he said, etc.; and both Ornan and his four sons saw him and were affrighted, 1 Chronicles 21:20.

The threshing-place of Araunah - These threshing-places, we have already seen, were made in the open air. In the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 21:15, 1 Chronicles 21:20, etc., this person is called Ornan. The word that we render Araunah is written in this very chapter אורנה Auarnah, 2 Samuel 24:16, ארניה Araniah, 2 Samuel 24:18, ארונה Araunah or Araunah, 2 Samuel 24:20, and the following: but in every place in 1 Chronicles 21:1-30 where it occurs it is written ארנן Ornan. It is likely he had both names, Araunah and Ornan: but the varieties of spelling in 2 Samuel ust arise from the blunders of transcribers.

And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it,.... Which, as it was perhaps the last place where the people were numbered, it was the last to which the plague came: this angel appeared in an human form, standing "between the earth and the heaven"; in the midst of the heaven, in the air, right over Jerusalem: "having a drawn sword in his hand stretched over the city"; as is said in 1 Chronicles 21:16; which was done as a menace, and to inject terror into David and the inhabitants of the city, and to give them notice of what they must expect:

the Lord repented him of the evil; he was inflicting, and now threatened Jerusalem with; having compassion on the place where the ark, the symbol of his presence, was, where a temple was to be built to the honour of his name, and where he should be worshipped; and therefore stopped proceeding; as men, when they repent of anything done by them, cease from it, so did the Lord now; otherwise repentance, properly speaking, falls not on him, and so it is next explained:

and said to the angel that destroyed the people; not the angel of death, the devil, but a good angel, who had a commission from God for this business:

it is enough: stay now thine hand: there is a sufficient number slay no more:

and the angel of the Lord was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite; that is, he was in the air, right over the spot, or near it, where was this man's threshingfloor; and was seen by Araunah and his four sons, who upon it hid themselves, perhaps among the sheaves they were threshing, 1 Chronicles 21:20; and this threshingfloor was on Mount Moriah, 2 Chronicles 3:1; as threshingfloors commonly were on mountains for the sake of winnowing the corn when threshed; See Gill on Ruth 3:2; who, according to Ben Gersom, though he was by birth a Jebusite, was proselyted to the Jewish religion.

The general statement as to the divine judgment and its terrible effects is followed by a more minute description of the judgment itself, and the arrest of the plague. "When the destroying angel ('the angel' is defined immediately afterwards as 'the angel that destroyed the people') stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, Jehovah repented of the evil (for this expression, see Exodus 32:14; Jeremiah 26:13, Jeremiah 26:19, etc.; and for the repentance of God, the remarks on Genesis 6:6), and He commanded the angel, Enough! stay now thine hand." This implies that the progress of the pestilence was stayed before Jerusalem, and therefore that Jerusalem itself was spared. "And the angel of Jehovah was at the threshing-floor of Aravnah the Jebusite." These words affirm most distinctly that the destroying angel was visible. According to 2 Samuel 24:17, David saw him there. The visible appearance of the angel was to exclude every thought of a natural land plague. The appearance of the angel is described more minutely in the Chronicles: David saw him standing by the threshing-floor of Aravnah between heaven and earth with a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. The drawn sword was a symbolical representation of the purpose of his coming (see at Numbers 22:23 and Joshua 5:13). The threshing-floor of Aravnah was situated, like all other threshing-floors, outside the city, and upon an eminence, or, according to the more precise statement which follows, to the north-east of Zion, upon Mount Moriah (see at 2 Samuel 24:25). According to the Chethib of 2 Samuel 24:16, the name of the owner of the floor was האורנה, of 2 Samuel 24:18 ארניה, and of 2 Samuel 24:20 (twice) ארונה. This last form also occurs in 2 Samuel 24:22, 2 Samuel 24:23, and 2 Samuel 24:24, and has been substituted by the Masoretes as the Keri in 2 Samuel 24:16 and 2 Samuel 24:18. In the Chronicles, on the other hand, the name is always written ארנן (Ornan), and hence in the Septuagint we find Ὄρνα in both texts. "The form ארונה (Aravnah) has not a Hebrew stamp, whereas Orna and Ornan are true Hebrew formations. But for this very reason Aravnah appears to be derived from an ancient tradition" (Bertheau).

And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: {i} stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

(i) The Lord spared this place, because he had chosen it to build his temple there.

Araunah: also called, Ornan

Margin angel

See Scofield Note: "Heb 1:4".

Margin repent

See Scofield Note: "Zech 8:14".

16. the Lord repented him of the evil-God is often described in Scripture as repenting when He ceased to pursue a course He had begun.

24:16,17 Perhaps there was more wickedness, especially more pride, and that was the sin now chastised, in Jerusalem than elsewhere, therefore the hand of the destroyer is stretched out upon that city; but the Lord repented him of the evil, changed not his mind, but his way. In the very place where Abraham was stayed from slaying his son, this angel, by a like countermand, was stayed from destroying Jerusalem. It is for the sake of the great Sacrifice, that our forfeited lives are preserved from the destroying angel. And in David is the spirit of a true shepherd of the people, offering himself as a sacrifice to God, for the salvation of his subjects.