Why did David insist on paying Ornan for the threshing-floor site?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

David said he must not take Ornan’s property and offer the Lord holocausts at no cost; he paid 600 sicles of gold of just weight for the place.

Chapter breakdown

David’s numbering of the people is punished by a pestilence, which ends upon his sacrifice at Ornan’s threshing floor.

Satan rose against Israel and moved David to number Israel. David ordered Joab and the rulers to number Israel from Bersabee to Dan and bring the total so he could know it. Joab wished that the Lord would make his people a hundred times as many and asked whether they were not already the king’s servants. He questioned why David sought something that might be counted as sin to Israel. The king’s word prevailed. Joab went through Israel, returned to Jerusalem and reported 1,100,000 men who drew the sword in Israel and 470,000 fighting men in Juda.

Challoner proposes accounting for the different numbers here and in 2 Kings 24 by supposing that the larger number was actually found and the smaller was what Joab reported. The note presents this as a supposition.

Joab did not number Levi and Benjamin, because he carried out the king’s orders unwillingly. God was displeased with the command and struck Israel. David confessed that he had sinned greatly and acted foolishly, asking God to take away his servant’s iniquity. The Lord sent Gad, David’s seer, to give him three choices and say that God would do the one he chose. Gad offered three years of famine; three months fleeing enemies without being able to escape their sword; or three days of the Lord’s sword, pestilence in the land and the Lord’s angel destroying throughout Israel. Gad asked what answer he should give the one who sent him.

Challoner explains that the three years of famine, joined to the three earlier years mentioned in 2 Kings 21 and the seventh year of the land’s rest, would make the seven years proposed in 2 Kings 24:13. This is the note’s explanation of the differing accounts.

David told Gad he was in great distress on every side, but preferred falling into the Lord’s hands, since his mercies were many, to falling into human hands. The Lord sent pestilence, and 70,000 Israelites died. He sent an angel to strike Jerusalem. As it was striking, the Lord saw and took pity because of the greatness of the evil, and told the destroying angel that it was enough and to stop his hand. The angel stood by Ornan the Jebusite’s threshing floor.

Challoner gives Areuna as another name for Ornan.

David saw the Lord’s angel between heaven and earth, holding a drawn sword turned against Jerusalem. David and the elders, dressed in haircloth, fell flat on the ground. David said he had commanded the count and had sinned and done evil; he asked what the flock had deserved. He begged that God’s hand fall on him and his father’s house, and that the people not be destroyed. The angel commanded Gad to tell David to build an altar to the Lord God at Ornan the Jebusite’s threshing floor. David went according to Gad’s word in the Lord’s name. Ornan, who was threshing wheat, saw the angel and hid with his four sons. As David approached, Ornan saw him, went out to meet him and bowed with his face to the ground.

David asked Ornan for the place of his threshing floor to build an altar so the plague would cease from the people, insisting that Ornan receive its full worth. Ornan willingly offered it and invited the king to do all that pleased him. He also offered oxen for a holocaust, drays for wood and wheat for the sacrifice. David refused to take it and offer holocausts to the Lord at no cost; he would pay its worth. He gave Ornan 600 sicles of gold of just weight for the place.

Challoner says the 600 sicles were the price of the whole place where the temple was later built, while the oxen cost 50 sicles of silver, referring to 2 Kings 24:24. The distinction and future temple connection belong to this note.

David built an altar there, offered holocausts and peace offerings and called on the Lord. The Lord heard him by sending fire from heaven upon the altar of the holocaust. At the Lord’s command the angel put his sword back into its sheath. Seeing that the Lord had heard him at Ornan’s threshing floor, David immediately offered victims there. The Lord’s tabernacle, which Moses made in the desert, and the altar of holocausts were then at the high place of Gabaon. David could not go to that altar to pray to God because seeing the angel’s sword had seized him with very great fear.

The story inside

Satan moves David to number Israel. David’s command prevails despite Joab’s objection about sin, and Joab reports the totals while leaving Levi and Benjamin uncounted. God strikes Israel, and David confesses his sin. Gad gives three precisely timed alternatives; David says he prefers the Lord’s hands because of his many mercies. Pestilence kills 70,000, and the Lord takes pity while the angel strikes Jerusalem and commands it to stop. David sees the drawn sword, falls down with the elders and asks that the stroke fall on him and his father’s house rather than destroy the people. Directed through Gad, he goes to Ornan’s threshing floor. Ornan offers the site and sacrificial materials willingly, but David insists on paying. He builds the altar, offers sacrifices and calls on the Lord, who answers with fire. The angel sheathes the sword at God’s command. David continues offering there, while fear of the sword prevents him going to the altar at Gabaon. Four separate Challoner notes address the numbers, famine years, Ornan’s other name and purchase-price distinction.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Joab’s objection and incomplete count preserve the limits of the survey. He asks why the king wants something that may count as sin to Israel, yet the king’s command prevails. He leaves Levi and Benjamin uncounted because he carries out the order unwillingly. The chapter names Satan’s action and God’s displeasure without explaining David’s motive as military pride.
2
David’s plea concerns both himself and his father’s house. He acknowledges that he commanded the count and sinned, asks what the flock deserved and begs that the people not be destroyed. The Lord’s earlier command to stop follows his taking pity at the greatness of the evil; the later command to sheath the sword follows the sacrifice. Keeping that order avoids replacing the stated causes with a theory of substitution.
3
The price and the answer to prayer are specific. Ornan offers the site, oxen, drays and wheat, but David refuses cost-free holocausts and pays 600 gold sicles of just weight. Fire from heaven answers his call, and fear explains his inability to go to Gabaon. Challoner’s temple-site and 50-silver-sicle explanation stays a note rather than becoming an added permanent-altar declaration in the verses.

Test your recall

David’s command prevails over Joab’s objection → Joab reports the count with Levi and Benjamin omitted → God strikes Israel and David confesses. Gad offers three judgments → David prefers the Lord’s hands for his many mercies → pestilence kills 70,000. The Lord takes pity → tells the angel to stop. David acknowledges his command and sin → asks protection for the people → follows Gad’s altar instruction. Ornan offers everything freely → David insists on payment → sacrifices and calls on the Lord → fire answers him and the sword is sheathed. Seeing the answer leads to further offerings there; fear of the sword prevents prayer at Gabaon.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 43414–43418
1 Paralipomenon Chapter 21 David’s sin in numbering the people is punished by a pestilence: which ceaseth upon his offering sacrifice in the thrashingfloor of Ornan.
Lines 43419–43437
21:1. And Satan rose up against Israel: and moved David to number Israel. 21:2. And David said to Joab, and to the rulers of the people: Go, and number Israel from Bersabee even to Dan, and bring me the number of them that I may know it. 21:3. And Joab answered: The Lord make his people a hundred times more than they are: but, my lord the king, are they not all thy servants: why doth my lord seek this thing, which may be imputed as a sin to Israel? 21:4. But the king’s word rather prevailed: and Joab departed, and went through all Israel: and returned to Jerusalem. 21:5. And he gave David the number of them, whom he had surveyed: and all the number of Israel was found to be eleven hundred thousand men that drew the sword: and of Juda four hundred and seventy thousand fighting men.
Lines 43439–43442
The number, etc.... The difference of the numbers here and 2 Kings 24. is to be accounted for, by supposing the greater number to be that which was really found, and the lesser to be that which Joab gave in.
Lines 43443–43466
21:6. But Levi and Benjamin he did not number: for Joab unwillingly executed the king’s orders. 21:7. And God was displeased with this thing that was commanded: and he struck Israel. 21:8. And David said to God: I have sinned exceedingly in doing this: I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done foolishly. 21:9. And the Lord spoke to Gad the seer of David, saying: 21:10. Go, and speak to David, and tell him: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee the choice of three things: choose one which thou wilt, and I will do it to thee. 21:11. And when Gad was come to David, he said to him: Thus saith the Lord: choose which thou wilt: 21:12. Either three years famine: or three months to flee from thy enemies, and not to be able to escape their sword: or three days to have the sword of the Lord, and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying in all the coasts of Israel: now therefore see what I shall answer him who sent me.
Lines 43468–43472
Three years famine.... Which joined with the three foregoing years of famine mentioned, 2 Kings 21. and the seventh year of the land’s resting, would make up the seven years proposed by the prophet, 2 Kings 24.13.
Lines 43473–43484
21:13. And David said to Gad: I am on every side in a great strait: but it is better for me to fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, than into the hands of men. 21:14. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. And there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 21:15. And he sent an angel to Jerusalem, to strike it: and as he was striking it, the Lord beheld, and took pity for the greatness of the evil: and said to the angel that destroyed: It is enough, now stop thy hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Lines 43486–43487
Ornan.... Otherwise Areuna.
Lines 43488–43512
21:16. And David lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand, turned against Jerusalem: and both he and the ancients clothed in haircloth, fell down flat on the ground. 21:17. And David said to God: Am not I he that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned: it is I that have done the evil: but as for this flock, what hath it deserved? O Lord my God, let thy hand be turned, I beseech thee, upon me, and upon my father’s house: and let not thy people be destroyed. 21:18. And the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David, to go up, and build an altar to the Lord God in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. 21:19. And David went up, according to the word of Gad, which he spoke to him in the name of the Lord. 21:20. Now when Ornan looked up, and saw the angel, he and his four sons hid themselves: for at that time he was thrashing wheat in the floor. 21:21. And as David was coming to Ornan, Ornan saw him, and went out of the thrashingfloor to meet him, and bowed down to him with his face to the ground.
Lines 43514–43529
21:22. And David said to him: Give me this place of thy thrashingfloor, that I may build therein an altar to the Lord: but thou shalt take of me as much money as it is worth, that the plague may cease from the people. 21:23. And Ornan said to David: Take it, and let my lord the king do all that pleaseth him: and moreover the oxen also I give for a holocaust, and the drays for wood, and the wheat for the sacrifice: I will give it all willingly. 21:24. And king David said to him: It shall not be so, but I will give thee money as much as it is worth: for I must not take it from thee, and so offer to the Lord holocausts free cost. 21:25. So David gave to Ornan for the place, six hundred sicles of gold of just weight.
Lines 43531–43534
Six hundred sicles, etc.... This was the price of the whole place, on which the temple was afterwards built; but the price of the oxen was fifty sicles of silver. 2 Kings 24.24.
Lines 43535–43553
21:26. And he built there an altar to the Lord: and he offered holocausts, and peace offerings, and he called upon the Lord, and he heard him by sending fire from heaven upon the altar of the holocaust. 21:27. And the Lord commanded the angel: and he put up his sword again into the sheath. 21:28. And David seeing that the Lord had heard him in the thrashingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, forthwith offered victims there. 21:29. But the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the desert, and the altar of holocausts, was at that time in the high place of Gabaon. 21:30. And David could not go to the altar there to pray to God: for he was seized with an exceeding great fear, seeing the sword of the angel of the Lord.