so unmistakeable as ידו ישׁלח, as would lead to the exchange supposed, ever occurring. But besides that, in Samuel the simple המּלאך is strange, for the angel has not been spoken of there at all before, and the lxx have consequently explained the somewhat obscure המּלאך by ὁ ἄγγελος τοῦ Θεοῦ. This explanation suggests the way in which the reading of our text arose. The author of the Chronicle, although he had already made mention of the יהוה מלאך in 1Ch 21:12, wrote in 1Ch 21:15 האלהים מלאך האלהי ויּשׁלח, “the angel of God stretched (his hand) out towards Jerusalem,” using האלהים instead of יהוה, - as, for example, in Jdg 6:20, Jdg 6:22; Jdg 13:6, Jdg 13:9, and Jdg 13:13, Jdg 13:15, Jdg 13:17. האלהים מלאך alternates with יהוה מלאך, and omitting ידו with ישׁלח, as is often done, e.g., 2Sa 6:6; Psa 18:17, etc. By a copyist מלאך and האלהים have been transposed, and מלאך was then taken by the Masoretes for an accusative, and pointed accordingly. The expression is made clearer by וּכהשׁחית, “And as he destroyed, Jahve saw, and it repented Him of the evil.” The idea is: Just as the angel had begun to destroy Jerusalem, it repented God. רב, adverb, “enough,” as in 1Ki 19:4, etc., with a dativ commodi, Deu 1:6, etc. Bertheau has incorrectly denied this meaning of the word, connecting רב with בּעם in 2Sa 24:16, and desiring to alter our text to make it conform to that. In 2nd Samuel also רב is an adverb, as Thenius also acknowledges.
Verses 16-19
The account of David's repentant beseeching of the Lord to turn away the primitive judgment, and the word of the Lord proclaimed to him by the prophet, commanding him to build an altar to the Lord in the place where the destroying angel visibly appeared, together with the carrying out of this divine command by the purchase of Araunah's threshing-floor, the erection of an altar, and the offering of burnt-offering, is given more at length in the Chronicle than in 2Sa 24:17-25, where only David's negotiation with Araunah is more circumstantially narrated than in the Chronicle. In substance both accounts perfectly correspond, except that in the Chronicle several subordinate circumstances are preserved, which, as being minor points, are passed over in Samuel. In 1Ch 21:16, the description of the angel's appearance, that he had a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem, and the statement that David and the elders, clad in sackcloth (garments indicating repentance), fell down before the Lord; in 1Ch 21:20, the mention of Ornan's (Araunah's) sons, who hid themselves on beholding the angel, and of the fact that Ornan
