2 Samuel 24:16-24

16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,^[a] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

David Builds an Altar

18 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

19 So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad.

20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”

22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.

23 Your Majesty, Araunah^[b] gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”

24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels^[c] of silver for them.

2 Samuel 24:16-24 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 24

In this chapter an account is given of David's numbering of the people, 2Sa 24:1-9; of the sense he had of his sin, and of his acknowledgment of it; and of the Lord's displeasure at it, who sent the prophet Gad to him, to propose three things to him, one of which he was to choose as a punishment for it, 2Sa 24:10-13; when he chose the pestilence, which carried off a great number of the people, 2Sa 24:14-17; and David was directed to build an altar to the Lord in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite, with whom he agreed for it, and built one on it, and offered upon it, and so the plague was stayed, 2Sa 24:18-25.

Cross References

• 1. S Genesis 6:6; 1 Samuel 15:11
• 2. S Genesis 16:7; S Genesis 19:13; S Exodus 12:23; Acts 12:23
• 3. Psalms 74:1; Psalms 100:3; Jeremiah 49:20
• 4. S Genesis 18:23
• 5. John 1:12
• 6. Genesis 22:2; 2 Chronicles 3:1
• 7. Numbers 16:44-50
• 8. S 1 Samuel 6:14; 1 Kings 19:21
• 9. Genesis 23:11; Ezekiel 20:40-41
• 10. Malachi 1:13-14
• 11. S Genesis 23:16

Footnotes

• [a]. Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint; Masoretic Text does not have "the shepherd" .
• [b]. Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts "King Araunah"
• [c]. That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams