1 Chronicles 21:18-26

Modern English Version

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹ So David went up at the word of Gad which he delivered in the name of the Lord.

²⁰ Now Ornan turned and saw the angel, but his four sons who were with him hid themselves as Ornan threshed the wheat. ²¹ As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

²² Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor so that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. Sell it to me at full price so the plague on the people may be restrained.”

²³ So Ornan replied to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do whatever seems good in his eyes. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing wagons for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all.”

²⁴ Then King David said to Ornan, “No, for I will surely acquire it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

²⁵ So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels^[a] of gold by weight for the site, ²⁶ and David built there an altar to the Lord and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him by fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.