2 Samuel 24:14-24

14 David said to Gad, "This is very hard for me. Let us fall into the hand of ADONAI, because his mercies are great, rather than have me fall into the hand of man."

15 So ADONAI sent a plague on Isra'el from that morning until the end of the specified time; 70,000 of the people died between Dan and Be'er-Sheva.

16 But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Yerushalayim to destroy it, ADONAI changed his mind about causing such distress and said to the angel destroying the people, "Enough! Now withdraw your hand."The angel of ADONAI was at the threshing-floor of Aravnah the Y'vusi.

17 David spoke to ADONAI when he saw the angel striking the people; he said, "Here, I have sinned, I have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please! Let your hand be against me and against my father's family!"

18 Gad came to David that day and said to him, "Go, set up an altar to ADONAI on the threshing-floor of Aravnah the Y'vusi."

19 David went up and did what Gad had said, as ADONAI had ordered.

20 Aravnah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. Aravnah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground.

21 Then Aravnah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy your threshing-floor, in order to build an altar to ADONAI, so that the plague will be lifted from the people."

22 Aravnah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up anything that seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering; you can use the threshing-sledges and the yokes for the oxen as firewood.

23 All this, O king, Aravnah gives to the king."Then Aravnah said to the king, "May ADONAI your God accept you."

24 But the king said to Aravnah, "No; I insist on buying it from you at a price. I refuse to offer to ADONAI my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for one-and-a-quarter pounds of silver shekels.

2 Samuel 24:14-24 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.