²¹ And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague ^(A)may be averted from the people.”

⁶ Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: ⁷ Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ^(A)‘Buy my field that is at ^(B)Anathoth, ^(C)for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ ⁸ Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in ^(D)the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at ^(E)Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

⁹ “And I bought the field at ^(F)Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and ^(G)weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. ^10 (H)I signed the deed, ^(I)sealed it, ^(J)got witnesses, and ^(K)weighed the money on scales. ¹¹ Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. ¹² And I gave the deed of purchase to ^(L)Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of ^(M)the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in ^(N)the court of the guard. ¹³ I charged ^(O)Baruch in their presence, saying, ¹⁴ ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time.

²² And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of ^(A)Araunah the Jebusite.”

³ But Joab said to the king, ^(A)“May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”

³ And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless ^(A)the heritage of the Lord?” ⁴ The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” ⁵ They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, ⁶ let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the Lord at ^(B)Gibeah of Saul, ^(C)the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of ^(D)the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸ The king took the two sons of ^(E)Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab^[a] the daughter of Saul, whom ^(F)she bore to ^(G)Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; ⁹ and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, ^(H)at the beginning of barley harvest.

^10 (I)Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night. ¹¹ When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, ¹² David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, ^(J)who had stolen them from the public square of ^(K)Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa. ¹³ And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. ¹⁴ And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in ^(L)Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that ^(M)God responded to the plea for the land.

⁸ and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.

⁴⁴ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^45 (A)“Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” ^(B)And they fell on their faces. ⁴⁶ And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for ^(C)wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” ⁴⁷ So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸ And he stood between the dead and the living, and ^(D)the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹ Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, ^(E)besides those who died in the affair of Korah. ⁵⁰ And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, when the plague was stopped.