David Builds an Altar

2 Samuel 24

¹⁸ And Gad came that day to David and said to him, "Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of _x Araunah the Jebusite." ¹⁹ So David went up at Gad's word, as the Lord commanded. ²⁰ And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ And Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague _y may be averted from the people." ²² Then Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the _z threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³ All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the Lord your God _a accept you." ²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels ₁ of silver. ²⁵ And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. _b So the Lord responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.

1. Cross References
   2 Chronicles 3:1
   Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
   
2. Cross References
   Numbers 16:48
   And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.
   Numbers 16:50
   And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, when the plague was stopped.
   
3. Cross References
   1 Kings 19:21
   And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.
   
4. Cross References
   Deuteronomy 33:11
   Bless, O Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, of those who hate him, that they rise not again.
   Psalms 20:3
   May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
   
5. Cross References
   2 Samuel 21:14
   And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that God responded to the plea for the land.