And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite. And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it. The pestilence seems to have broken out at the opposite extremities of the country, and to have advanced with gigantic strides from all points, until it was ready to concentrate its violence upon Jerusalem.
The Lord repented him of the evil. God is often described in Scripture as "repenting", when He ceases to pursue a course he had begun.
Said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; stay now thine hand. This destroying angel was hovering over mount Moriah, and brandishing his deadly sword over the inhabitants in the metropolis below, when the order to stay his hand was issued by the Lord. Such an apparition must have been a terrific spectacle. There are some who resolve this narrative into a strong and highly poetical description of an awful plague, which was with so fearful rapidity mowing down the people, and who maintain that "the angel of the Lord" is like the Homeric figure of Apollo discharging his arrows upon the Greeks, when a pestilence broke out among them. But the introduction of a bold poetical figure into a narrative of plain, unvarnished prose is most improbable; and the mention of the "angel of the Lord," as an intelligent superhuman agent, while it is consistent with the general style of the divine procedure in the ancient Church, is so much in keeping with the rest of this striking record that no one could doubt the reality of his interposition, whose mind was not warped by a preconceived theory against all occurrences contrary to the ordinary course of nature. But it is alleged by others that it was a popular belief among the Hebrews that angels presided over certain diseases; and hence, it became common to speak of a particular malady, especially if it was of a malignant nature, as "the angel of the Lord." But this notion about the angels became prevalent after the captivity; and not a shadow of evidence can be adduced to prove that it was held by them in the early days of David. It was derived from their foreign conquerors, and imported into Palestine on their return from the captivity, (see further the notes at 1 Chronicles 21:1-30.)