ARAUNAH ə rô’ nə (הָאﯴרְנָה, 2 Sam 24:16 [ק] 20ff.; הָאﯴרְנָה, 2 Sam 24:16 [ך]; אָרָנְיָה, 2 Sam 24:18; ορνα in LXX אָרְנָ֥ן, [1 Chron 21:15 ff., 2 Chron 3:1]; and with the article הָאֲרַ֥וְנָה [2 Sam 24:16]; meaning lord, aristocrat in Hurrian). The Jebusite from whom David purchased the threshing floor as a site for an altar (2 Sam 24:16ff. and 1 Chron 21:18ff.) to stop the plague which broke out when he numbered the people.

The name of the owner of the threshing floor is most certainly of Hurrian origin. The interchange of the letter r and w reflects the Hurrian spelling of irwi from Nuzu and the Ugaritic spelling of iwri. The appearance of the definite article in 2 Samuel 24:16 and the appositional phrase “the King” (24:23) are evidences that the Heb. writer understood both the meaning and the significance of this Jebusite with whom David was dealing. The suffix -nah, reflects the Aram. -ni, the definite article; thus the Heb. text actually has a double definite article if this understanding of the text is correct. Also cf. H. B. Rosen’s suggestion that it is of Hitt. derivation from a-raw-wan-ni or a-ra-u-wan-ni, libre, aristocrate. The LXX Orna and Chronicles Ornan appear to be true Heb. formations derived secondarily from the original foreign name.

This site was purchased by David when the prophet Gad was sent to the penitent David with the instruction that David should purchase the threshing floor from this Jebusite.

Although the Jebusite, father of four sons, offers to give it to David without charge, David insists on paying the price given in 2 Samuel 24:24 as fifty shekels of silver for both the threshing floor and the oxen, while 1 Chronicles 21:25 lists 600 shekels of gold weighed out “for the site.” The explanation for these differences is to be found in either: (1) a copyist’s mistake; (2) two prices for two items, (a) 50 shekels of silver for the oxen in Samuel—“so David bought the threshing floor, and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver”—and (b) 600 shekels of gold “for the site”; or (3) two purchases of land were made by David—an original plot of ground on which to erect an altar and afterward the whole hill of Moriah for the larger price.

The theology of the sin is prob. explained in 1 Chronicles 27:23, 24 saying David was not to number Israel “because the Lord had promised to make Israel as many as the stars of the heavens.”

The Temple was later located on this spot (2 Chron 3:1).

Bibliography J. Montgomery JAOS, LV (1935), 94; H. B. Rosen V.T. v (1955), 318-320; C. H. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook (1965), 19, 116.