2 Samuel 24:17
And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house.
The cry belongs to the aftermath of numbering Israel, a sin that brought pestilence upon the people in which seventy thousand died. The destroying work was done by an angel smiting the people, seen in warlike dress with drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. David and those with him beheld him as he went to destroy Jerusalem, while David and the elders mourned in humiliation, until God in pity stayed him.
David knew the angel for what he was and was terribly afraid, yet distress and compassion for Israel moved him. He openly confessed that he had sinned and done wickedly, taking the guilt upon himself. The people he called sheep, regarding them as innocent of his wrongdoing.
He begged God to spare them and to let His hand fall instead upon himself and upon his father's house and household. That compassion for Israel went with his repentance, his heart was in the repentance, and the repentance was accepted. Then God by the prophet directed atonement, which David made by purchasing Araunah's threshing floor at full price, refusing to offer what cost him nothing, and there building an altar and presenting burnt offerings and peace offerings until God answered with fire from heaven, accepted the sacrifice, bade the angel sheathe the sword, and brought the destruction to an end.
The account shows that when divine protection is withdrawn, God may allow destructive power to execute judgment.