¹⁴ The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering^(A) to the Lord.

²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen^(A) for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.

⁴ Early the next day the people built an altar and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.^(A)

²¹ So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen^(A) and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.^(B)

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar^(A) of the Lord, which had been torn down. ³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.”^{(B) 32} With the stones he built an altar in the name^(C) of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs^[a] of seed. ³³ He arranged^(D) the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”

³⁴ “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.

“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. ³⁵ The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

³⁶ At the time^(E) of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham,^(F) Isaac and Israel, let it be known^(G) today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.^{(H) 37} Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know^(I) that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

³⁸ Then the fire^(J) of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

²⁵ David built an altar^(A) to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer^(B) in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

David Builds an Altar^(A)

¹⁸ On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah^(B) the Jebusite.”

²⁹ He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice^(A) in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

⁵ Just then Saul was returning from the fields, behind his oxen, and he asked, “What is wrong with everyone? Why are they weeping?” Then they repeated to him what the men of Jabesh had said.