2 Samuel 24:18

David Builds an Altar

18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹

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 But when the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 When David saw the angel striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “Surely I, the shepherd, have sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please, let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house.”

18 And that day Gad came 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 at the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded.

20 When Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out and bowed facedown before the king.

Cross References

• 1. (1 Chronicles 21:18–30)