Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 21:15

"And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, Jehovah beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay thy hand. And the angel of Jehovah was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite." — 1 Chronicles 21:15 (ASV)

And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. —The reading of Samuel is probably right, And the angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem, to destroy it. The verb is the same word in each, and the word “God” in our text is substituted for “Jehovah,” which, again, is a misreading of part of the Hebrew of Samuel (yâdô ha), the first word meaning his hand, and the second being the definite article belonging to “angel.”

To destroy. —A different voice of the same verb as in Samuel.

And as he was destroying, the Lord beheld. —Not in Samuel. The words “soften the harshness of the transition from the command to the countermand” (Bertheau).

As he was destroying. —About (at the time of) the destroying; when the angel was on the point of beginning the work of death. It does not appear that Jerusalem was touched. (Compare to 2 Samuel 24:16).

That destroyed. —Samuel adds, Among the people. The addition is needless, because the Hebrew implies “the destroying angel.” .

It is enough, stay now. —According to the Hebrew accentuation, Enough now (jam satis), stay (drop) your hand.

Stood. —Was standing. Samuel, had come to be.

Ornan. —So the name is spelled throughout this chapter. Samuel has the less Hebrew-looking forms ha-’ôrnah (text; compare to the Septuagint ǒpva) or ha-Arawnah, margin) here, and in 1 Chronicles 21:18 Aranyah (text), elsewhere Arawnah. Such differences are natural in spelling foreign names. The Septuagint have “Orna,” the Syriac and Arabic “Aran.”