1 Chronicles 21:17-30
21:17 David said to God, “Was I not the one who decided to number the army? I am the one who sinned and committed this awful deed!
As for these sheep – what have they done? O
Lord my God, attack me and my family,
but remove the plague from your people!”
21:18 So the Lord’s messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build 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.
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 to the ground.
21:22 David said to Ornan, “Sell me the threshing floor so I can build on it an altar for the Lord – I’ll pay top price – so that the plague may be removed from the people.”
21:23 Ornan told David, “You can have it! My master, the king, may do what he wants. 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. I will not offer to the Lord what belongs to you or offer a burnt sacrifice that cost me nothing.
21:25 So David bought the place from Ornan for 600 pieces of gold.
21:26 David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. He called out to the Lord, and the Lord responded by sending fire from the sky and consuming the burnt sacrifice on the altar.
21:27 The Lord ordered the messenger 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 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.