Shmuel Bais 24:21

21 And Aravnah said, Why is adoni HaMelech come to his eved? And Dovid said, To buy the goren of thee, to build a Mizbe’ach unto Hashem, that the magefah (plague) may be withdrawn from HaAm.

Shmuel Bais 24:21 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 24:21

And Araunah said, wherefore is my lord the king come to his
servant?
&c.] Which both implies admiration in him, that so great a person should visit him in his threshingfloor; that a king should come to a subject his servant, who should rather have come to him, and would upon the least intimation; it was a piece of condescension he marvelled at; and it expresses a desire to know his pleasure with him, supposing it must be something very urgent and important, that the king should come himself upon it: and to this David made answer,

and David said,
what he was come for:

to buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar to the Lord, that
the plague may be stayed from the people;
for though David had acknowledged his sin, and God had repented of the evil he inflicted for it, and given orders for stopping it; yet he would have an altar built, and sacrifices offered, to show that the only way to have peace, and pardon, and safety from ruin and destruction, deserved by sin, is through the expiatory sacrifice of Christ, of which fill sacrifices were typical, and were designed to lead the faith of the Lord's people to that.

Shmuel Bais 24:21 In-Context

19 And Dovid, according to the Devar Gad, went up as Hashem commanded.

20 And Aravnah looked, and saw HaMelech and his avadim coming on toward him; and Aravnah went out, and prostrated himself before HaMelech on his face upon the ground.

21 And Aravnah said, Why is adoni HaMelech come to his eved? And Dovid said, To buy the goren of thee, to build a Mizbe’ach unto Hashem, that the magefah (plague) may be withdrawn from HaAm.

22 And Aravnah said unto Dovid, Let adoni HaMelech take and offer up what seemeth tov unto him; see, here are oxen for the olah (burnt sacrifice), and threshing tools and other instruments of the bakar (oxen) for wood.

23 All these things did Aravnah, hamelech lamelech, give. And Aravnah said unto HaMelech, Hashem Eloheicha yirtzecha (accept thee).