1 Chronicles 21:18-27

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹⁸ The angel of the Lord told Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹ David went up according to the directive from Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord.

²⁰ While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel. Ornan and his four sons hid themselves.

David Builds an Altar

²¹ As David approached Ornan, Ornan looked up and saw David. He went out from the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground. ²² David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor. I will build an altar to the Lord on it. You will give it to me for full price, and the plague will be averted from the people.”

²³ Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself. My lord the king may do what is good in his eyes. Look here. I have given the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I have given everything.”

²⁴ David said to Ornan, “No. I am determined to buy it for the full price, because I will not take what belongs to you for the Lord and for burnt offerings without paying for it.”

²⁵ So David weighed out six hundred shekels^[a] of gold to Ornan for the site.

²⁶ Then David built an altar to the Lord there, and he offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called to the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar for burnt offerings. ²⁷ The Lord spoke to the angel. The angel put his sword back into its sheath.