1 Chronicles 21:24-30

21:24 King David replied to Ornan, “No, I insist on buying it for top price. 1  I will not offer to the Lord what belongs to you or offer a burnt sacrifice 2  that cost me nothing. 3  21:25 So David bought the place from Ornan for 600 pieces of gold. 4  21:26 David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. 5  He called out to the Lord, and the Lord 6  responded by sending fire from the sky and consuming the burnt sacrifice on the altar. 21:27 The Lord ordered the messenger 7  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 8  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 “No, for buying I will buy for full silver.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

2 tc The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:24 has the plural “burnt sacrifices.”

3 tn Or “without [paying] compensation.”

4 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.

7 tn Or “tokens of peace.”

8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

10 tn Heb “spoke to the messenger.”

13 tn Or “high place.”