15. So the Lord sent an epidemic on Israel, which lasted from that morning until the time that he had chosen. From one end of the country to the other 70,000 Israelites died.
16. When the Lord's angel was about to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord changed his mind about punishing the people and said to the angel who was killing them, “Stop! That's enough!” The angel was by the threshing place of Araunah, a Jebusite.
17. David saw the angel who was killing the people, and said to the Lord, “I am the guilty one. I am the one who did wrong. What have these poor people done? You should punish me and my family.”
18. That same day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up to Araunah's threshing place and build an altar to the Lord.”
19. David obeyed the Lord's command and went as Gad had told him.
20. Araunah looked down and saw the king and his officials coming up to him. He threw himself on the ground in front of David
21. and asked, “Your Majesty, why are you here?”David answered, “To buy your threshing place and build an altar for the Lord, in order to stop the epidemic.”
22. “Take it, Your Majesty,” Araunah said, “and offer to the Lord whatever you wish. Here are these oxen to burn as an offering on the altar; here are their yokes and the threshing boards to use as fuel.”
23. Araunah gave it all to the king and said to him, “May the Lord your God accept your offering.”
24. But the king answered, “No, I will pay you for it. I will not offer to the Lord my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing.” And he bought the threshing place and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver.
25. Then he built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. The Lord answered his prayer, and the epidemic in Israel was stopped.