2 Samuel 24:18-25

Evangelical Heritage Version

David Builds an Altar to the Lord

¹⁸ Gad came to David on that day and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up and obeyed Gad’s instructions as the Lord had commanded.

²⁰ Araunah looked up and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed down to the king with his face to the ground, ²¹ and he said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

David said, “To purchase the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, so the plague will be held back from the people.”

²² Araunah said to David, “My lord the king can take it and offer whatever seems good to him. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, as well as the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³ O King, Araunah is giving all this to the king.” Araunah also said to the king, “The Lord your God will accept you.”

²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No. I insist on purchasing it from you for what it is worth. I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that I did not pay for.”

So David purchased the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.^{[a] 25} He built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings there. The Lord heard the requests for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.