Some say the merit of Abraham's actions saved later Israelites. reports that after David ordered a census of the Israelites, God punished the Israelites with a plague. then reports, "And as He was about to destroy, the Lord beheld, and He repented Him." The Gemara asked what God beheld that caused God to withhold destruction. Samuel taught that God beheld the ashes of Isaac. For in , Abraham says, "God will see for Himself the lamb." (Thus God saw the merit of the sacrifice that Abraham intended to bring.) Alternatively, Rabbi Johanan taught that God saw the Temple. For explained the meaning of the name that Abraham gave to the mountain where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac to be, "In the mount where the Lord is seen." (Solomon later built the Temple on that mountain, and God saw the merit of the sacrifices there.) Rabbi Jacob bar Iddi and Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani differed on the matter. One said that God saw the atonement money that reports God required Moses to collect from the Israelites, while the other said that God saw the Temple. The Gemara concluded that the more likely view was that God saw the Temple, as can be read to say, "As it will be said on that day, 'in the mount where the Lord is seen.'"