2 Samuel 24:19-25

19 So David did what Gad told him to do, just as the Lord commanded.

20 Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming to him. So he went out and bowed facedown on the ground before the king.

21 He said, "Why has my master the king come to me?" David answered, "To buy the threshing floor from you so I can build an altar to the Lord. Then the terrible disease will stop."

22 Araunah said to David, "My master and king, you may take anything you want for a sacrifice. Here are some oxen for the whole burnt offering and the threshing boards and the yokes for the wood.

23 My king, I give everything to you." Araunah also said to the king, "May the Lord your God be pleased with you."

24 But the king answered Araunah, "No, I will pay you for the land. I won't offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for one and one-fourth pounds of silver.

25 He built an altar to the Lord there and offered whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer for the country, and the disease in Israel stopped.

2 Samuel 24:19-25 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.