David’s Altar

^18 (A)Then the angel of the Lord ^[a]commanded Gad to say to David, that David was to go up and build 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 spoke in the name of the Lord. ²⁰ Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat. ²¹ As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself to David with his face to the ground. ²² Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the ^[b]site of this threshing floor, so that I may build on it an altar to the Lord; you shall give it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be brought to a halt from the people.” ²³ But Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and may my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I am giving the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I am giving it all.” ²⁴ Nevertheless, King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will certainly buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer a burnt offering ^[c]which costs me nothing.” ²⁵ So ^(B)David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the ^[d]site. ²⁶ Then David built an altar there to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the Lord, and ^(C)He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷ The Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.