2 Samuel 24:18

David Builds an Altar

18 On that day Gad went to David. Gad said to him, "Go up to the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. Build an altar there to honor the Lord."

2 Samuel 24:18 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 24:18

And Gad came that day to David
Ordered and directed by the angel of the Lord, ( 1 Chronicles 21:18 ) ;

and said unto him, go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing
floor of Araunah the Jebusite:
it was too far to go to Gibeon, where the tabernacle was, at such a time of extremity, when the sword of the angel was stretched out over Jerusalem, ( 1 Chronicles 21:29 1 Chronicles 21:30 ) ; and this was the most proper place, as it was the very spot over and nearest to which the angel was; and was on Mount Moriah, where the Jews say Abraham offered up Isaac; and where the temple was afterwards built, as Kimchi and Ben Gersom observe; and Eupolemus, an Heathen writer ^F7, says, that when David desired to build a temple for God, and that he would show him the place of the altar, an angel appeared to him, standing over the place where the altar at Jerusalem was to be built.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 30. p. 447.

2 Samuel 24:18 In-Context

16 The angel reached his hand out to destroy Jerusalem. But the LORD was very sad because of the plague. So he spoke to the angel who was making the people suffer. He said, "That is enough! Do not kill any more people." The angel of the LORD was at Araunah's threshing floor. Araunah was from the city of Jebus.

17 David saw the angel who was striking the people down. David said to the Lord, "I'm the one who has sinned. I'm the one who has done what is wrong. These people are like sheep. What have they done? Let your powerful hand punish me and my family."

18 On that day Gad went to David. Gad said to him, "Go up to the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. Build an altar there to honor the Lord."

19 So David went up and did it. He did what the LORD had commanded through Gad.

20 Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him. So he went out to welcome them. He bowed down to the king with his face toward the ground.