2 Samuel 24:18-25
An Altar on Araunah's Threshing Floor
Read the passage
18And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
19So David went up at the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded.
20When Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out and bowed facedown before the king.
21“Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” Araunah said. “To buy your threshing floor,” David replied, “that I may build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague upon the people may be halted.”
22Araunah said to David, “May my lord the king take whatever seems good to him and offer it up. Here are the oxen for a burnt offering and the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.
23O king, Araunah gives all these to the king.” He also said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
24“No,” replied the king, “I insist on paying a price, for I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25And there he built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then the LORD answered the prayers on behalf of the land, and the plague upon Israel was halted.
Berean Standard Bible
Read aloud
Through Gad, the LORD commands David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David goes in obedience to that word. Araunah sees the king and bows with his face to the ground. David explains that he has come to buy the threshing floor so he can build an altar and ask the LORD to stop the plague.
Araunah offers the site, oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and yokes as wood. He expresses the hope that the LORD will accept David. David refuses to offer what costs him nothing and buys the threshing floor and the oxen.
David builds the altar and offers burnt offerings and peace offerings. The LORD responds to the plea for the land, and the plague is halted. The book closes with worship joined to repentance, cost, and the end of a devastating judgment.
God has provided the instruction by which David comes to seek Him. David then buys Araunah’s threshing floor and refuses to offer what costs him nothing. The purchase does not mean David can pay for forgiveness or control the plague through a religious transaction; it shows him accepting responsibility for a place where he will seek the LORD. Araunah's generosity is honored, but David does not make generosity a substitute for repentance.
The altar, offerings, and the LORD's response close a chapter of judgment with worship that has become honest about cost. The ending does not erase the seventy thousand who died or make David's census harmless. When a wrong has caused damage, confession should lead to concrete repair, humble worship, and care for the people who have carried the loss.
Questions
1 What does Gad tell David to build?
AnswerHe tells David to build an altar to the LORD on Araunah's threshing floor. The place of judgment becomes the place where David seeks mercy.
2 What does Araunah offer?
AnswerHe offers the threshing floor, oxen, and the wood needed for the offering. His generosity would allow David to act without first paying for the materials.
3 Why does David refuse the free offering?
AnswerHe says he will not offer to the LORD what costs him nothing. Worship, in this moment, includes personal cost rather than allowing someone else to carry the entire burden.
4 What could it mean to bear our own part of the cost when we seek to put a wrong right?
AnswerIt might mean giving time to repair what we damaged, replacing what we lost, or changing a habit instead of expecting others to keep accommodating it. Such actions do not buy God’s mercy; they give practical expression to our responsibility.
What This Means for Us
David's refusal is not a claim that every act of worship must be expensive. It is a refusal to turn repentance into a costless performance when others have already supplied everything.
The threshing floor is also a place of transformed meaning. A site associated with judgment becomes a place of pleading and peace, though the community still remembers the lives lost.
When you need to repair harm, do not ask the injured to do all the work. Bring your own honesty, cost, and changed behavior; then let restoration grow from more than words.
Prayer
God of mercy, receive our honest repentance. Keep us from offering empty words while others bear the cost, and teach us to pursue repair with humility, sacrifice, and hope in Your compassion. Amen.