صموئيل الثاني ٢٤:١٦

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, Sa2 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, Ch1 21:20. The threshing-place of Araunah - These threshing-places, we have already seen, were made in the open air. In the parallel place, Ch1 21:15, Ch1 21:20, etc., this person is called Ornan. The word that we render Araunah is written in this very chapter אורנה Auarnah, Sa2 24:16, ארניה Araniah, Sa2 24:18, ארונה Araunah or Araunah, Sa2 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 in2 Samuel must arise from the blunders of transcribers.

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.

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 Ch1 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, Ch1 21:20; and this threshingfloor was on Mount Moriah, Ch2 3:1; as threshingfloors commonly were on mountains for the sake of winnowing the corn when threshed; See Gill on Rut 3:2; who, according to Ben Gersom, though he was by birth a Jebusit…

Numbering of the People, and Pestilence - 2 Samuel 24 For the purpose of ascertaining the number of the people, and their fitness for war, David ordered Joab, his commander-in-chief, to take a census of Israel and Judah. Joab dissuaded him from such a step; but inasmuch as the king paid no attention to his dissuasion, he carried out the command with the help of the military captains (Sa2 24:1-9). David very speedily saw, however, that he had sinned; whereupon the prophet Gad went to him by the command of Jehovah to announce the coming punishment, and give him the choice of three different judgments which he placed before him (Sa2 24:10-13). As David chose rather to fall into the hand of the Lord than into the hand of men, God sent a pestilence, which carried off seventy thousand men in one day throughout the whole land, and had reached Jerusalem, when the Lord stopped the destroying angel in consequence of the penitential prayer of David (Sa2 24:14-17), and sent Gad to the king to direct him to build an altar to the Lord on the spot where the destroying angel had appeared to him (Sa2 24:18). Accordingly David bought the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, built an altar upon it, and sacrificed burnt-offerings and thank-offerings, after which the plague was stayed (Sa2 24:19-25). This occurrence, which is introduced in the parallel history in 1 Chron 21 between David's wars and his arrangements for a more complete organization of the affairs of the nation, belongs undoubtedly to the closing years of David's reign. The mere taking of a census, as a measure that would facilitate the general organization of the kingdom, could not in itself be a sinful act, by which David brought guilt upon himself, or upon the nation, before God. Nevertheless it is not only represented…

24:16 the Lord relented: God might stop his judgment when a third party intercedes for the intended target (Exod 32:12-14), when the sinful person repents (Jer 18:8), or simply because he decides to do so. • the death angel: Cp. Exod 12:23. • A threshing floor was an unwalled space where harvested grain was threshed and winnowed to separate the kernels from the chaff. Gideon encountered God at a threshing floor (Judg 6:37). Araunah’s threshing floor later became the site of the Temple (1 Chr 21:18–22:1; 2 Chr 3:1). • Araunah the Jebusite: Even though David had taken Jerusalem from the Jebusites (2 Sam 5:6-9), he had not eliminated them or driven them away.