David’s Altar

¹⁸ So the angel of the Lord ordered Gad^(A) to tell David to go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.^{(B) 19} David went up at Gad’s command spoken in the name of the Lord.

²⁰ Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel. His four sons, who were with him, hid. ²¹ David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground.

²² Then David said to Ornan, “Give me this threshing-floor plot so that I may build an altar to the Lord on it. Give it to me for the full price, so the plague on the people may be stopped.”

²³ Ornan said to David, “Take it! My lord the king may do whatever he wants.^[a] See, I give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering—I give it all.”

²⁴ King David answered Ornan, “No, I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the Lord what belongs to you or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

²⁵ So David gave Ornan fifteen pounds of gold^[b] for the plot. ²⁶ He built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and he answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.^(C)

²⁷ Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. ²⁸ At that time, David offered sacrifices there when he saw that the Lord answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Building the Temple

3 Then Solomon began^(A) to build the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah^(B) where the Lord^[a] had appeared to his father David, at the site David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan^[b] the Jebusite.