1 Chronicles 21:17
King James Version
“And David said unto God, not I commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.”
Context
14So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
17And David said unto God, not I commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
18Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.
20And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.