Discovery Box1 Chronicles 21:18-30 
Context21:18 So the Lord’s messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build 1 an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 21:19 So David went up as Gad instructed him to do in the name of the Lord. 2 21:20 While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the messenger, and he and his four sons hid themselves. 21:21 When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David; he came out from the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face 3 to the ground. 21:22 David said to Ornan, “Sell me the threshing floor 4 so I can build 5 on it an altar for the Lord – I’ll pay top price 6 – so that the plague may be removed 7 from the people.” 21:23 Ornan told David, “You can have it! 8 My master, the king, may do what he wants. 9 Look, I am giving you the oxen for burnt sacrifices, the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for an offering. I give it all to you.” 21:24 King David replied to Ornan, “No, I insist on buying it for top price. 10 I will not offer to the Lord what belongs to you or offer a burnt sacrifice 11 that cost me nothing. 12 21:25 So David bought the place from Ornan for 600 pieces of gold. 13 21:26 David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. 14 He called out to the Lord, and the Lord 15 responded by sending fire from the sky and consuming the burnt sacrifice on the altar. 21:27 The Lord ordered the messenger 16 to put his sword back into its sheath.
21:28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord responded to him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 21:29 Now the Lord’s tabernacle (which Moses had made in the wilderness) and the altar for burnt sacrifices were at that time at the worship center 17 in Gibeon. 21:30 But David could not go before it to seek God’s will, for he was afraid of the sword of the Lord’s messenger.
1 tn Heb “that he should go up to raise up.”
2 tn Heb “and David went up by the word of Gad which he spoke in the name of the
3 tn Heb “nostrils.”
4 tn Heb “the place of the threshing floor.”
5 tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive here indicates the immediate purpose/result: “so I can build.”
6 tn Heb “For full silver sell to me.”
7 tn Following the imperative and first person prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive, this third person prefixed verbal form with vav conjunctive introduces the ultimate purpose/result: “so the plague may be removed.” Another option is subordinate this form to the preceding imperative, but the latter may be taken as a parenthetical expansion of the initial request.
8 tn Heb “take for yourself.”
9 tn Heb “what is good in his eyes.”
10 tn Heb “No, for buying I will buy for full silver.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
11 tc The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:24 has the plural “burnt sacrifices.”
12 tn Or “without [paying] compensation.”
13 tc The parallel text of 2 Sam 24:24 says David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for “fifty pieces of silver.” This would have been about 20 ounces (568 grams) of silver by weight.
tn Heb “six hundred shekels of gold.” This would have been about 15 lbs. (6.8 kg) of gold by weight.
14 tn Or “tokens of peace.”
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
16 tn Heb “spoke to the messenger.”
17 tn Or “high place.”
