2 Samuel 24:18

18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, Go up, and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

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 And when the hand of the angel was stretched out in the direction of Jerusalem, for its destruction, the Lord had regret for the evil, and said to the angel who was sending destruction on the people, It is enough; do no more. And the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 And when David saw the angel who was causing the destruction of the people, he said to the Lord, Truly, the sin is mine; I have done wrong: but these are only sheep; what have they done? let your hand be against me and against my family.

18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, Go up, and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

19 So David went up, as Gad had said and as the Lord had given orders.

20 And Araunah, looking out, saw the king and his servants coming to him: and Araunah went out, and went down on his face to the earth before the king.