2 Samuel 24:18

18 Then Gad came to David on that same day and said to him, "Go up and erect an altar to Yahweh at the threshing 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 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, Yahweh regretted about the evil, and he said to the angel who brought destruction among the people, "Enough, now relax your hand." Now the angel of Yahweh [was] at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel destroying among the people, and he said, "Look, I have sinned and I have done wrong, but these sheep, what did they do? Please let your hand be against me and against the house of my father."

18 Then Gad came to David on that same day and said to him, "Go up and erect an altar to Yahweh at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."

19 So David went up according to the word of Gad, as Yahweh had commanded.

20 Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants coming over to him, so Araunah went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.