David Builds an Altar

2 Samuel 24

¹⁸ And Gad came that day to David and said to him, _z "Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." ¹⁹ So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded. ²⁰ Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ Then Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" _a And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that _b the plague may be withdrawn from the people." ²² Now Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. _c Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. ²³ "All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God _d accept you." ²⁴ Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing." So _e David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵ And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. _f So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and _g the plague was withdrawn from Israel.

1. Cross References
   2 Samuel 7:8
   Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.
   1 Chronicles 21:17
   And David said to God, "Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O LORD my God, be against me and my father's house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.
   Psalms 74:1
   O GOD, why have You cast us off forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
   
2. Cross References
   1 Chronicles 21:18
   Therefore, the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
   
3. Cross References
   Genesis 23:8 - 16
   And he spoke with them, saying, "If it is your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and meet with Ephron the son of Zohar for me.
   
4. Cross References
   Numbers 16:48
   And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.
   Numbers 16:50
   So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped.
   
5. Cross References
   1 Samuel 6:14
   Then the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there; a large stone was there. So they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
   1 Kings 19:21
   So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
   
6. Cross References
   Ezekiel 20:40
   For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel," says the Lord GOD, "there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me; there I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the firstfruits of your sacrifices, together with all your holy things.
   Ezekiel 20:41
   I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles.
   
7. Cross References
   1 Chronicles 21:24
   Then King David said to Ornan, "No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.
   1 Chronicles 21:25
   So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
   
8. Cross References
   2 Samuel 21:14
   They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father. So they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God heeded the prayer for the land.