And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, Jehovah beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough; withdraw now thine hand. And the angel of Jehovah stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
David had counted the people, and a plague fell on Israel. Now the destroying angel has reached Jerusalem, and this verse catches the moment God halts him. It also names the exact spot: a farmer's threshing floor owned by a Jebusite.
God sent the angel, and God stopped him. Who talked Him into stopping? One writer answers: no one.
"God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it." He is righteous… God is merciful. Death had begun to be busy in Jerusalem. It had come close to David; but suddenly the plague was arrested. How was this? God had said to the angel, "Now stay your hand." Why was this? "The LORD saw, and He relented from the calamity." David had done nothing to stop the spread of the disease and the deaths it caused. The high priest and the prophet were just as powerless. They could not make the angel pause for one moment in his work of destruction. There was no help anywhere but in God… He relented, and He held back the angel's arm. No one that we know of had asked Him to. No sacrifice had been offered to persuade Him to be gracious.
The order of events matters. One writer notices who saw the angel first.
How will God reconcile His judgment with His grace? Will He destroy Jerusalem to make His righteousness prevail? Will He pardon it at the expense of His holiness?… The king humbles himself, repents, and mourns with the elders. Together they fall on their faces, but David alone confesses his sin, as representative of the people. David, we say, sees the angel. But the Lord had seen the angel and had stopped him… God's first act is to suspend the judgment. Only after that does David see the angel and humble himself. Then the angel, standing by the threshing floor of Ornan, speaks to Gad the prophet. At the Lord's command he had withdrawn his hand. But he had not yet put his sword back into its sheath.
The angel stops on land owned by a Jebusite, one of the peoples still living in Israel's land.
This occurred by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, for the Jebusite was in the land. The Canaanites still lived in the land. It will be so till Jesus comes and reigns… And, what is more, God marks His grace; for all is grace here. It was there He stopped, at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. That was the last place anyone would have expected. Why there? Because there God meant to mark sovereign grace.
A stayed hand is not yet a sheathed sword. In what follows, the sacrifice comes last, not first.
First comes the heart of God, and His sovereign grace in election, holding back the deserved judgment He had announced. Next comes the revelation of that judgment. This revelation produces humbling before God, and a full confession of sin before His face… Then God gives instruction about what must be done to bring the plague to a judicial and final end: to sacrifice at Ornan's threshing floor. God accepts the sacrifice, sending fire to consume it. Then He commands the angel to sheathe his sword.
The place where the sword stopped did not stay an ordinary field. One writer looks at what the Lord planned for it.
In this verse the threshing floor of Ornan first comes into view. It is a poor spot in itself. Yet the Lord destined it to be the joy of the whole earth: the place of the glory, the rest of God and His Israel. It stands before us at once as the witness of that blessed, precious truth which is the sure ground of all our hopes — that with our God "mercy triumphs over judgment"… He might have broken Israel's whole system at once, as a vessel in which He had no pleasure.
Did this mercy mean no sacrifice was needed? One writer answers, and points to what God kept hidden until Christ came.
Was there no need for a sacrifice? Surely it was needed. God's holiness and righteousness demanded it. But what holiness and righteousness demanded, divine love provided… In the days of David, God kept the way He would show mercy secret until He began to act. It was the same later. No one could know whose blood would make propitiation for our sins, until the Lord came and announced that God gave His only Son to be the sin-offering.
- Grace moves first. The Lord saw the angel and stopped him before David ever looked up. No prayer, no priest and no sacrifice had moved Him to do it.
- Grace stops the sword. "It is enough" ends the plague. The sword David sees is drawn but held back: judgment deserved, judgment restrained.
- Grace chooses the ground. The angel stops on a Jebusite's threshing floor. It was the last place anyone would expect, and God chose it to mark His sovereign grace.
- Grace runs through sacrifice. God stays the angel's hand at once. The angel sheathes his sword only after the sacrifice is offered and God sends fire to consume it.
- Grace ends in glory. The poor threshing floor becomes the joy of the whole earth: the place of the glory, the rest of God and His Israel.
And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah stand between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
The plague has swept through Israel. Now David looks up and sees what was invisible a moment before: an armed angel above the city. Two questions press on the scene. Why does David see this at all? And how can God hold back a judgment His own righteousness had sent?
This armed figure is not new in Israel's story. One writer traces three appearances:
Three times in the course of the people's history, the Angel of the Lord steps in with a drawn sword in His hand. The first time it is to protect them from threatened dangers. Balaam, on his way to curse Israel, meets the messenger who blocks his road (Num. 22:23). The second time it is to fight alongside them and win the victory for them. The third time, sadly, it is to judge the people who had sinned in the person of their king (1 Chron. 21:16).
The sword is out over the city, yet no blow falls while David watches. The timing of the sight matters:
The danger was great. To human eyes it looked immediate, though the angel was not using his sword. God held back his arm, for He had said, "It is enough, stay now your hand." David did not see the angel deal even a single blow. He saw him only after God had stayed his hand — yet still in the attitude of one ready to strike, with his sword drawn and stretched out over Jerusalem.
The halt did not come as a reward for David's sorrow. It came from God's side alone:
The plague rages. The angel strikes from north to south, from Dan to Beersheba (v. 15), across the whole area where the numbering had taken place. He comes to Jerusalem and stretches out his sword over the beloved city. At that moment "the Lord relented" and stops the hand of the angel. He does not stop it because of David's repentance, but because of His own change of mind. His judgment yields to His grace without either one being weakened or sacrificed.
The same writer draws out how this reverses what we would expect of the king's part:
David, we say, sees the angel, but the Lord had seen the angel and had stopped him... The first thing God does is to suspend judgment; only after that does David, seeing the angel, humble himself.
The sight does its work at once. King and elders go face down, and what comes out of David is not a plea of innocence:
He sees the angel of judgment standing between earth and heaven with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem! The effect is instant, and David and the elders of Israel, clothed in sackcloth, fall on their faces before the Lord. How bitter is the cry wrung from David's heart! "I am the one who has sinned... Let Your hand be on me." This is the cry of repentance! There is not only the confession of sin, but an admission that the penalty is just. If God had taken him at his word and struck him, he could only have said, "It is perfectly just!"
The angel halts at one particular spot, and the address itself carries the message:
It was there He stopped — the last place where anyone would have expected it — at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Why there? Because there God meant to mark sovereign grace. "And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD ... in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem." God gave David this sight.
A stopped sword is not a sheathed one. Something more was needed before the blade went back in its sheath:
Israel were safe now, not because they deserved it, nor could they ever have deserved it. They were safe because the sword was sheathed in righteousness through grace. What brought this about? Was it not the sacrifice, which God had accepted? It spoke to Him of what He alone then understood — the sacrifice of His Son... Until that sacrifice was offered, the angel's sword stayed out of its sheath. So that it might be offered, God stopped the angel in his work of destruction.
The writer who traced the three appearances applies them to God's people now:
We also deal with the Angel in these three ways. He shows Himself to us as He did to David, with His drawn sword turned against the city of God. For His own He is a consuming fire, who chastens and humbles them, so that afterwards He may put His sword back in its sheath and restore them in the end.
- Sword drawn — the same Angel once blocked Balaam's road and once fought for Israel. Now He stands over Jerusalem to judge a people who sinned in their king.
- Sword stayed — God held the angel's hand back before David ever looked up. He stopped it out of His own grace, not for David's repentance.
- Sword seen — God gave David the sight only after the halt. He looks at judgment poised to strike, but never striking.
- Sword confessed — king and elders fall in sackcloth. David alone owns the sin, and calls the penalty perfectly just.
- Sword sheathed — the blade goes back only after a sacrifice, and on the last place anyone would look for grace: a Jebusite's threshing floor. The God who humbles His own restores them in the end.
And David said to God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned and done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, Jehovah my God, be on me and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be smitten.
David had ordered a census of Israel's fighting men, and a plague followed. Now the destroying angel stands over Jerusalem, and the king asks God to strike him instead of the people — but will God agree?
The people were not innocent bystanders in the king's sin. One commentator explains why God struck Israel and not David alone:
This seems extraordinary at first sight — why God should smite Israel — but God was wise. It was Israel that became a snare and a boast to the king. Did he not number them? Their numbers must be cut down now. God would reduce the number. He would make David feel that his folly and his pride had made him a curse to His people instead of a blessing.
The correction landed precisely where the sin had been:
But he had to be corrected, and corrected in the very place where he had sinned. He had boasted of his thousands, so his thousands had to be cut down. God would now number to the sword those whom David had numbered to his pride.
David does not spread the blame. He names himself as the one who gave the order, and asks God to aim the blow at him:
Here David offers himself as a substitute. He stands alone in the breach. Further on (v. 17), he takes the whole fault upon himself: "Was it not I who gave command to number the people?" Then he offers his life for the sheep. After that, he intercedes... David could not say to God as Christ: Why have You forsaken me? but he could act as a mediator. He could truly charge himself before God with all the guilt, by identifying himself with the judgment of the people.
Disaster drew out the best in David. He does not argue for himself; he thinks about the flock:
However, it had the effect of drawing out much of the sweet, self-renouncing grace that was in David. Hear his touching words, as he exposes his own chest to the stroke of judgment... This was precious grace. He learned to say, "your people," and he was ready to stand between them and the enemy.
The order of events in the chapter matters:
David, we say, sees the angel, but the Lord had seen the angel and had stopped him. "And as he was about to destroy, the LORD saw, and He relented from the calamity. And He said to the angel who was working destruction, 'It is enough; now stay your hand'" (v. 15). God's first act is to hold back the judgment. Only after that does David see the angel and humble himself.
David asked God to let him and his own family bear the plague instead of Israel. God said no, and one writer explains why:
Now he asks God that he and his father's house should suffer, and not the people of Israel. Again he asked for what God would not give. Righteousness had demanded God's judgment on the people, so judgment had gone out. God was now going to show His mercy in full, so He would not make David suffer in the place of all Israel. None could fully be the substitute but David's Son and David's Lord.
David pictures Christ here, but one writer marks the flaw in the picture:
He takes the judgment upon himself and stands in the breach so that the sheep may be spared. He charges himself with sin and iniquity. But sadly, this sin was his own sin, and this judgment was judgment he had deserved. Another, a lone Arbiter, bore our sins without having any sins Himself. He made our sins His own and laid down His life for His sheep, saying: "If you seek me, let these men go" (John 18:8).
The verse also carries a plain lesson about influence:
He realizes that he ought to personally suffer the consequences. But this is a lesson for anyone who has a prominent place among God's people. The people will suffer for the failure of the leaders.
- Pride counted. David boasted of his thousands, so his thousands were cut down. God corrected him at the exact point of his pride.
- Mercy first. God stopped the angel before David prayed. Mercy moved first, and confession followed.
- Shepherd's plea. David called them "these sheep" and "your people." He stepped between the flock and the sword instead of defending himself.
- Offer refused. God would not let David die for Israel. A sinner cannot stand in for others when the sin is his own.
- The Substitute came later. What David could only picture, Christ performed — bearing sins He never committed, and saying over His own sheep, "let these men go."
And the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
The census is over, the plague has fallen, and the angel of the Lord now stands by a Jebusite farmer's threshing floor with a drawn sword. From there the angel of judgment himself tells Gad to send David up to build an altar — but why there, and why an altar?
The order of events matters. Mercy moved before David did.
David sees the angel, but the Lord had seen the angel and had stopped him. While the angel was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the evil. He told the destroying angel that it was enough, and that he should now withdraw his hand (v. 15). The first thing that God does is to suspend judgment; only after that does David, seeing the angel, humble himself. Then the angel, standing by the threshing floor of Ornan, speaks to Gad the prophet. At the Lord's command, he had withdrawn his hand. But he had not yet put his sword back into its sheath. He tells David to go up to the very place where he was standing.
The message of mercy arrives through the very angel sent to destroy.
The angel of destruction announces the relief for David in this dark hour. The one who devours yields food, and the strong one yields sweetness. The law itself pointed forward to Jesus, who would replace it. In the same way, here the altar was to replace the angel who directed it.
David had two obvious places to go: the ark on Mount Zion and the bronze altar at the tabernacle in Gibeon. God sent him to neither.
The ark was on Mount Zion. The tabernacle was at Gibeon (2 Chron. 1). The king was not to go to the ark, nor to make his way to the bronze altar. He was to raise an altar on Ornan's threshing floor — a piece of ground still owned by a Jebusite, one of the ancient inhabitants of Jerusalem. At once David obeyed. God had declared what should be done, and David would do it, so that the plague might stop.
The owner's nationality is part of the point.
This happened by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, for the Jebusite was in the land. The Canaanites still lived in the land… And what is more, God marks His grace; for everything here is grace. It was there He stopped — the last place where anyone would have expected it. Why there? Because there God meant to mark sovereign grace.
Ornan hid himself. David stood his ground, because he knew what God had provided.
The Lord had not revealed His grace to Ornan. He knew nothing of the altar that was to be set up on his threshing floor. So — simply a creature in the sight of God, like Adam before him in such a case — he hid himself. But David knew the remedy that mercy, rejoicing over judgment, had provided. So he dares to stand, though shamed and humbled… The sword is still drawn, but it holds no terror for him now.
Ornan gave the ground for nothing. David bought it anyway, and paid in gold.
The ground had to be bought at full price… Ornan gave the ground freely. But in the huge price paid for the ground the altar stood on, may we not see a picture of the infinite price paid, so that justice might be satisfied and worship and blessing might rest on an unchangeable basis?… Six hundred shekels of gold may seem a heavy price. But burnt offerings are not to be offered for nothing.
What began as a place of plague ended as the site of the temple — and David only learned that site after this humbling.
David found acceptance with God at this altar. He was afraid to go to the altar of burnt offering at the high place in Gibeon, which belonged to the first tabernacle under the law. Now he learns for the first time where the temple is to stand. Long before, he had tried to build this temple… But never until now was he humbled enough for God to teach him the right place for it.
- The place chosen — God stopped the angel before David ever saw him. The order to build an altar came after that mercy, not because David talked God out of judgment.
- The place bought — Ornan gave the ground for nothing, yet David paid six hundred shekels of gold for it.
- The place approached — Ornan hid, but David stood his ground, because he knew the remedy God had provided.
- The place unexpected — not the ark, not Gibeon, but a foreign farmer's floor, marking the whole thing as grace.
- The place remembered — the temple later rose where the sword stopped. David learned the site of God's house only after God humbled him.
And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of Jehovah.
The angel's sword is still drawn over Jerusalem. David has one thing to go on: a message from the prophet Gad — and he acts on it, treating that word as God's own.
The place Gad named mattered as much as David's obedience:
The place where mercy triumphed over judgment becomes the site of the altar. This shows where the temple would later be built — the place where God's mercy stopped the plague.
Gad arrives while David is still in distress over his sin, and what he brings is not another threat but a remedy:
David the penitent is crying out in his distress. Meanwhile Gad the seer is already on his way, like a true evangelist, to announce God's provision for his salvation. Elihu's words to Job would have fitted that message: "Deliver him... I have found" — what David failed to find — "a ransom."
No one in Israel could say how the angel's sword might be sheathed. The answer came as a word from God, and it pointed David away from Israel's known places of worship:
God had held judgment back, but had not yet finally turned it away, for the angel's sword was still unsheathed. Who could then be sure the dreadful visitation was over? Neither Gad, nor David, nor all the elders of Israel in council could have dared to say. God would not leave them in suspense for a single day. He alone could decide, and reveal on what terms that dreaded sword would be sheathed... The ark was on Mount Zion. The tabernacle was at Gibeon. The king was not to go to the ark, nor to the bronze altar. He was to build an altar on Ornan's threshing floor — ground still owned by a Jebusite, one of the ancient inhabitants of Jerusalem. At once David obeyed. God had said what must be done, and David would do it, so that the plague would stop.
David walks onto the threshing floor. Ornan and his sons run for cover:
He went up at once at the word of the prophet, while Ornan and his sons hid themselves from the angel. No human being can stand naked before the Lord, in his own resources. Yet sinners may come right up to His heavenly presence by the power of simply believing in His grace. Ornan and David illustrate this. The Lord had not revealed His grace to Ornan. Ornan knew nothing of the altar that was to stand on his threshing floor. So he hid himself — a bare creature in the sight of God, like Adam before him in the same case. But David knew the remedy that mercy, triumphing over judgment, had provided. So he dares to stand, though ashamed and humbled.
David's obedience did not end at the top of the hill. He paid for the ground before he built on it:
In 1 Chronicles 21 and 22 we find that God's judgment had first to fall on David's pride. Only after he had paid the full price did God show him the place for the Lord's house. Looking away from all natural things, and acting only according to God's thoughts, always costs something. It calls for sacrifice.
David's step ends with the angel's sword going back into its sheath. That moment brought settled peace:
The reconciliation was complete. David was justified by faith, so he had peace with God... David trusted in this grace. He built his altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, where mercy had triumphed. And at once, at the Lord's commandment, the angel of destruction puts his sword back into its sheath.
- Word — Gad speaks in the LORD's name, and David treats his message as God's own command: "So David went up at Gad's word."
- Ransom — Gad's word is not a further sentence. It announces God's provision, like Elihu's "I have found a ransom."
- Walk — David goes up at once. He stands on the floor where Ornan hides, because he knows the remedy mercy has provided.
- Cost — he pays the full price for the ground. Acting on God's thoughts instead of natural ones always costs something.
- Rest — the altar goes up and the sword goes back in its sheath. Where mercy triumphed over judgment, the LORD's house would later stand.
And Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
Ornan is doing the plainest work there is: beating out wheat on his own floor. Above him an angel stands over Jerusalem with a drawn sword. The verse turns on what he sees: he looks up, catches sight of the angel, and his four sons hide themselves.
The chapter builds a chain of sight, and Ornan is the last link. One writer traces the order, and notes what ended his fear:
The Lord, we have said, had seen the angel; then David had seen him; now Ornan in turn sees him (v. 20). At this sight he and his sons hide themselves, terrified. But the sight of David reassures him (v. 21), for God had sent David to build an altar on Ornan's threshing floor. Indeed, what could be more reassuring than to see the Lord's Anointed, the one God commissioned to make expiation and put an end to judgment?
The verse names the four sons as hiding, and commentators read Ornan as hiding with them. Two men are on that floor, and they act in opposite ways. One commentator sets the difference down to what each of them knew:
Notice this. No human being can stand before the Lord stripped bare, with nothing but his own resources. Yet sinners may come right up into His heavenly presence, in the power of simply believing in His grace. Ornan and David illustrate this. God had not revealed His grace to Ornan. He knew nothing of the altar that was going to be set up on his threshing floor. So, as a mere creature exposed in God's sight, like Adam in the same situation, he hid himself. But David knew the remedy that mercy, triumphing over judgment, had provided. So he dares to stand, though ashamed and humbled.
David buys the ground and builds while the sword is still drawn.
The sword is still drawn, but it holds no terror for him now. Because he believes, he is not ashamed or confused. He stands still to see God's salvation. His soul simply becomes a receiver of the grace that God Himself brings near to him.
The detail that Ornan was threshing wheat is not scenery. A threshing floor is where a farmer separates grain from husk. One commentator sees meaning in the plague stopping at such a place. He uses this man's other name:
There is wonderful instruction for us, however, in the fact that the plague stopped at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. The judgment of God only goes as far as the threshing floor. In other words, when God judges, it is with the object of bringing out the grain from the chaff. The process may be deeply painful, but the resulting blessing for genuine believers is unspeakably precious.
Ornan is a Jebusite — a Canaanite still living in the land, not an Israelite. The sword stopped over the property of an outsider, and that choice of address is deliberate:
This occurred by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, for the Jebusite was in the land. The Canaanites still lived in the land… And, what is more, God marks His grace; for all is in grace here. It was there He stopped — the last place where one would have expected it — at the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Why there? Because there God meant to mark sovereign grace.
Ornan offers his oxen, his threshing tools and his wheat for nothing. David refuses, and the refusal carries meaning:
Ornan, full of good will, but ignorant, would like to be able to contribute to this work. David does not allow him to do so; he alone will offer God a sacrifice that he will pay for out of what he has, and that will cost Ornan nothing. David does not want to give God what belongs to someone else, but what is his own, just as Christ gave His own life.
The floor where the sons hid did not stay a farmyard.
In this verse the threshing floor of Ornan comes into view for the first time. In itself it is a lowly spot, but the Lord has destined it to be the joy of the whole earth: the place of the glory, the resting place of God and of His Israel. At once it stands as a witness to that blessed, precious truth which is the sure ground of all our hope — that with our God "mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13).
- Sight. The Lord saw the angel first, then David, then Ornan — and only the man who had no word from God about an altar ran and hid.
- Shelter. Ornan hid as Adam hid, with nothing but himself to stand on. David stayed on his feet under the same drawn sword, because he knew what God had provided.
- Sifting. The plague stops at a threshing floor: God's judgment goes far enough to separate grain from chaff, and no further.
- Sovereignty. Mercy halted on the ground of a Canaanite, the least likely address in Jerusalem, so that grace would be unmistakable.
- Substitution. David refused Ornan's wheat, oxen and tools. The sacrifice had to cost the king himself. That lowly threshing floor became the site of God's house.
And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with [his] face to the ground.
An angel of judgment stood over Jerusalem, and David came to an ordinary threshing floor. Its owner, Ornan, left his wheat and bowed before the king — on the spot where God would stop the plague.
Ornan bows just after a moment of terror. One writer traces who saw the angel, and what changed when the king arrived.
The Lord, we have said, had seen the angel; then David saw him; now Ornan in turn sees him (v. 20). At this sight he and his sons hide in terror. But Ornan takes heart when he sees David (v. 21), sent by God to build an altar on Ornan's threshing floor. What could be more reassuring than to see the Lord's Anointed, the one God sent to make expiation and put an end to the judgment?
Ornan is a Jebusite — a Canaanite, not an Israelite. One writer asks why God stopped the judgment on his land, of all places.
This happened at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, for the Jebusite was in the land. The Canaanites still lived in the land. It will be so until Jesus comes and reigns, and then the Canaanite will be in the land no longer. And what is more, God marks out His grace, for everything here is grace. That is where He stopped — the last place anyone would have expected — at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Why there? Because there God meant to mark sovereign grace.
David meets Ornan at a threshing floor, where a farmer beats the grain out of the chaff. One writer — who calls the man Araunah — finds meaning in that place.
There is wonderful teaching for us, though, in God stopping the plague at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. The judgment of God only goes as far as the threshing floor. In other words, when God judges, His aim is to bring the grain out of the chaff. The process may be very painful, but the blessing it brings to real believers is more precious than words can say. The Jebusites had been true to their name, "treaders down" of the city God had declared to be His own centre, that is, Jerusalem. But the grace of God has changed Araunah's character. He is a prodigal of the Gentiles, spared while the judgment hung over his head. He is a picture of all Gentiles whom the grace of God saves.
Ornan and his sons had hidden. David walks straight onto the same ground. The difference is not courage but knowing what God had provided.
Notice two things here. No one can stand before the Lord stripped bare, with nothing but his own resources. Yet sinners may come right up to His heavenly presence, through the power of simply believing in His grace. Ornan and David show this. The Lord had not revealed His grace to Ornan. He knew nothing of the altar that would soon stand on his threshing floor. So, as a bare creature in the sight of God — like Adam before him in the same situation — he hid himself. But David knew the remedy that mercy, triumphing over judgment, had provided. So he dares to stand, though shamed and humbled.
Samuel tells the same meeting a little differently. One writer answers the question those differences raise:
As always, where Scripture seems at first sight to differ from itself, careful thought over the Word will uncover hidden truths and glories. Broadly speaking, the account in Samuel deals with the side of man's need, while Chronicles gives us the side of God's purpose.
In this verse the difference is in who Ornan sees coming toward him:
Samuel speaks of the King and his servants, but in Chronicles David alone fills Ornan's sight. Chronicles mentions only Ornan and his sons. That too points to purpose, above all when we link it with the thought behind 1 Chronicles 22:1.
- Sword. An angel of judgment stood over the city. David came as the one God sent to build the altar and put an end to the judgment.
- Floor. Judgment goes as far as the threshing floor and no further. God is sorting grain from chaff, not destroying everything.
- Jebusite. God stopped the plague on Canaanite ground — the last place anyone would expect. That marks the whole scene as grace.
- Faith. Ornan hid because he did not know the remedy. David stood on the same ground because he did. Knowing what God has provided is what lets a guilty person come near.
- Purpose. Samuel records man's need; Chronicles records God's purpose. Here David alone fills Ornan's sight.
And David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of the threshing-floor, that I may build an altar in it to Jehovah grant it to me for the full money, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Ornan said to David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his sight see, I give the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges for wood, and the wheat for the oblation; I give it all.
Ornan is threshing wheat when the king arrives, and the destroying angel still stands over the city. He offers David all he owns — ground, oxen, sledges, grain — so why does the king refuse it?
Ornan was a Jebusite — one of the original inhabitants of Jerusalem. He meant well, but he did not understand what was happening:
Ornan, full of good will, but ignorant, would like to be able to contribute to this work. David does not allow that. He alone will offer God a sacrifice. He pays for it out of what he has, and it costs Ornan nothing. David does not wish to give to God what belongs to another, but what is his own, just as Christ gave His own life.
David's answer turns on who the giver is. The guilty king must be the one who pays:
Here is an interesting scene between David and Ornan. Ornan was willing to give everything; but no — the gift had to be David's, not a Jebusite's… How striking — the man who had brought all the trouble! The guilty king is yet the picture of the Holy One of Israel, the picture of Him who gave up His life a ransom for many.
Commentators differ on how to read David's refusal. One writer, who notes that this man carries two names, thinks he came off better than David here:
He had two names — Araunah, which means "Jah is firm," and Ornan, which means "strong."… In the knowledge of God he seems for the moment to have been greater than David… It is a pity that David spoiled that beauty and grace by insisting on paying for all he received.
Two accounts of this sale record two different sums. One writer finds no contradiction there:
Comparing the two passages, far from showing any contradiction, unfolds divine beauty. Righteousness valued the place at the first amount, whereas grace gave the second. David had set his affections on the house of God, and so gave over and above. This is very simple and very beautiful… In Samuel, only the threshing floor and the oxen for sacrifice at the time of the plague are mentioned. In Chronicles the place bought seems to include the whole temple hill.
Why was the judgment lifted? One writer points to the sacrifice — and behind it, to God Himself:
He acted in mercy then, and He acts in mercy still, because of what He is. The sacrifice can turn judgment away from those who deserve it… So that the sacrifice might be offered, God stopped the angel in his work of destruction, and let David know that he should sacrifice to Him. He required the sacrifice. He made that known, and David found everything ready to hand — through the willingness of Ornan indeed, but surely through the goodness of God.
What David does at this floor — pay for the ground and then present the offering on it — is read as a picture of Christ:
Ornan's threshing sledges are not used, as he had wanted, to burn up the sacrifice: God consumes it with fire from heaven. That is His character in judgment, but it is at the same time… the sign given by the Lord that He has fully accepted the sacrifice.
One writer sees the huge price of this ground as a shadow of a far greater price, and ends with a question aimed at the reader:
Ornan did give the ground. But may we not see, in the huge price paid for the ground the altar stood on, a shadow of the infinite price paid to satisfy justice and to set up an unchangeable basis for worship and blessing?… Six hundred shekels of gold may seem a heavy price. But burnt offerings are not to be offered for nothing. What a question we might ask in passing: "How much did it cost to get our altar into its right place before God?"
- Offered. Ornan gave all he had — ground, oxen, sledges, wheat — with real goodwill. He just did not know what God was doing on his floor.
- Refused. David would not give God what belonged to someone else. The sacrifice came out of his own hands, as Christ gave His own life.
- Paid. Righteousness priced the place; grace paid far above it, because David loved the house of God.
- Accepted. God, not Ornan's sledges, burned the sacrifice — fire from heaven showed He had taken it. Mercy reached Israel through His goodness.
- Costly. Burnt offerings are not offered for nothing. The price of that small patch of ground points to the infinite price that set worship on a lasting basis.
And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will in any case buy [them] for the full money; for I will not take that which is thine for Jehovah, to offer up a burnt-offering without cost.
David has sinned by counting the people, judgment has fallen, and the prophet Gad sends him to Ornan's threshing floor to build an altar. Ornan offers him the whole site free, but the king refuses — so why turn down a gift, and what does it cost to bring anything to God?
Ornan means well, but he is not the one who must offer. One writer traces how David pays for every part of it:
Ornan, full of goodwill but ignorant, would like to be able to contribute to this work. David does not allow it. He alone will offer God a sacrifice. He pays for it out of what he has, and it costs Ornan nothing. David does not wish to give to God what belongs to another, but what is his own. David buys everything with his own resources: the place, the threshing floor, the altar, and the burnt offerings. God does not burn the sacrifice with Ornan's threshing sledges, as Ornan had wanted. He consumes it with fire from heaven. That is His character in judgment. But it is at the same time the sign from the Lord that He has fully accepted the sacrifice.
The refusal points beyond David. Ornan the Jebusite would have given it all, but the guilty king pays for the ground himself:
We find an interesting scene between David and Ornan, who was willing that everything should be given; but no — it had to be David's gift, not a Jebusite's... How striking! The man who had brought all the trouble — the guilty king, but the type of the Holy One of Israel — the type of Him who gave up His life as a ransom for many.
The two accounts of this purchase name different prices. Commentators read this not as a contradiction but as two purchases with two meanings:
In 2 Samuel 24:24 we read that David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. In 1 Chronicles 21:25 we read that he gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. The comparison of the two passages, far from presenting any discrepancy, unfolds divine beauty. Righteousness valued the place at the first amount; grace "gave" the second. David had "set his affections to the house of God," and therefore "gave over and above." This is very simple and very beautiful.
Each metal carries its own meaning — one for the altar, one for the temple site:
The threshing floor and the oxen were bought for their full legal value, meeting the requirements of the law. Silver, the emblem of redemption, was paid for the threshing floor connected with the altar and the sacrifice. Gold, the emblem of glory, was given for the field connected with the temple and the glory.
What was true at David's altar holds for all worship:
Worship, to be acceptable to God, must have the character of a sacrifice. Worship must cost us something. In some measure we are poorer, in one way or another, because we worship God. We give something to Him — not something of ourselves, but something of Him who lives in us, of Him who is always acceptable to God.
Where that principle is real, it shows in the pocket before it shows in the mouth:
David had already shown this principle of personal sacrifice: "I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing." Someone once said that he never felt free to recommend a gift from the church funds unless he had first helped in private himself. It is easy to be generous with suggestions from the church purse and stingy with your own possessions... Love gives; love sacrifices.
Cost by itself does not make an offering acceptable. One writer points to Cain, whose worship cost real toil and was still false worship:
He offered what he had worked for by the sweat of his brow. He worked the ground, and he "brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground." He did not bring what cost him nothing. In fact, his worship cost more toil than Abel's. He came in the way of nature, offering the fruit of his work and labour... This is always the character of false worship.
- Owned. David refuses to give God what belongs to Ornan; the offering must be his own or it is not his offering at all.
- Paid. Silver met the legal price of the floor and the oxen. Gold bought the wider site — righteousness paying, grace giving over and above.
- Pictured. The guilty king who buys the ground with his own resources points to the One who gave up His life as a ransom for many.
- Practised. Worship has the character of sacrifice, so it leaves the worshipper poorer — love gives before it tells others to give.
- Warned. Cain's worship cost him real toil and was still false worship, so cost alone never makes an offering acceptable.
And David gave to Ornan for the place in shekels of gold the weight of six hundred [shekels].
David had just sinned by counting Israel, and the plague that followed stopped at Ornan's threshing floor, where God told him to build an altar. Verse 25 records the sum David paid, and it raises two questions: why so large a price, and why it differs from the figure in 2 Samuel 24.
Here the sum is six hundred shekels of gold. In 2 Samuel 24:24 David pays fifty shekels of silver to the same man, there called Araunah. One writer answers the charge that the two accounts clash: each account names something different that David bought.
Critics tell us there is a serious contradiction between the account in 2 Samuel 24:24 and the one in 1 Chronicles 21:25, about David buying the threshing floor from Araunah... The fact is, however, that both are correct. Samuel tells us that he bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 1 Chronicles 21:22, 25 tells us that he bought "the place" for six hundred shekels of gold by weight. Clearly "the place" may have stretched over a large area beyond "the threshing floor."
Another writer reads the two sums together and finds beauty in them, not a problem.
Comparing the two passages, far from showing any discrepancy, unfolds divine beauty. Righteousness valued the place at the former amount, while grace "gave" the latter. David had "set his affections to the house of God," and therefore "gave over and above." This is very simple and very beautiful.
The two metals are not interchangeable. Each fits what it bought.
The threshing floor and oxen were bought for fifty shekels of silver — the ransom money of a hundred souls (see Ex. 30:13). That was their full legal value, meeting the requirements of law. This was the place for the altar, according to 2 Sam. 24:25. But 1 Chron. 21:25 further tells us that David gave gold by weight for the whole place or field. This was the site of the Temple. Silver, the emblem of redemption, was paid for the threshing floor, connected with the altar and the sacrifice. Gold, the emblem of glory, was given for the field, connected with the Temple and the glory.
Ornan wanted a share in the cost. David would not let him, and his reason reaches beyond good manners.
David buys the place of the threshing floor, not just the threshing floor alone as in 2 Samuel 24:21, 24. This explains the difference in price. Ornan means well, but he does not understand. He would like to help with this work. David does not allow it. He alone will offer God a sacrifice. He pays for it out of what he has, and it costs Ornan nothing. David does not wish to give to God that which belongs to another, but that which is his own, just as Christ gave His own life.
Another writer notes who this buyer is: the very man whose sin had brought on the disaster.
How striking! The man who had brought all the trouble was the guilty king. Yet he is a picture of the Holy One of Israel — a picture of Him who gave up His life as a ransom for many.
One writer points to the order in which David learned where God's house would stand.
But only after a humbling experience did David come to know Mount Zion as the place which God had chosen. In 1 Chron. 21 and 22 we find that God's judgment had first to fall on his pride. Only after he had paid the full price did God show him the place for the Lord's house. It always costs something. It calls for sacrifice to look away from all natural things and to act only according to God's thoughts.
One writer sees in the size of the price a shadow of something far greater.
The ground had to be bought at full price. I have no doubt that the great sum mentioned in Chronicles is a beautiful picture of that grace which could give all. Ornan did offer the ground as a gift. But think of the immense price paid for the ground the altar stood on. May we not see in it a shadow of the infinite price paid to satisfy justice, and to lay an unchangeable basis for worship and blessing?... Six hundred shekels of gold may seem a heavy price. But burnt offerings should not be offered at no cost.
- Price. Fifty shekels of silver bought the threshing floor and the oxen. Six hundred shekels of gold bought "the place," a far larger area. Two purchases, not two versions of one.
- Paid, then given. Righteousness settled the legal value. Grace added far more, because David's heart was set on God's house.
- Metals. Silver, the emblem of redemption, paid for the ground of the altar and sacrifice. Gold, the emblem of glory, was the gift for the temple site.
- Cost. David would not offer what cost him nothing. He would not give God what belonged to another — a picture of Christ, who gave His own life as a ransom for many.
- Place. Only after David paid the full price did God show him where His house would stand. The cost came first; the dwelling followed.
And David built there an altar to Jehovah, and offered up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon Jehovah; and he answered him from the heavens by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.
David had just bought this threshing floor, the open ground where Ornan beat out his grain. The destroying angel had stood on that very spot — so why does fire from heaven now fall there?
Fire falls, and the ground of terror turns into a place of joy. One writer sets that against the men who had hidden there minutes before.
Approving fire from heaven consumes the offerings, and all judicial terrors are at an end. The terrible symbolic sword has disappeared, put up into its sheath, and all is joy and happy worship on the threshing floor of Ornan. What a change from verse 20, where those who were on that very floor hid themselves in fear before the messenger of death!
David "called on the LORD" while the angel's sword was still drawn. Ornan, who owned the floor, had hidden; David stayed and worked. The difference was not nerve but knowledge of what God had provided.
Ornan had no revelation of the Lord's grace; he knew nothing of the altar that was to be set up in his threshing floor, and so — standing simply as a creature before God, like Adam before him — he hid himself. But David knew the remedy that mercy, rejoicing against judgment, had provided, and so he dares to stand, though ashamed and humbled. He carries out his appointed service without distraction. He buys the threshing floor, prepares the altar, offers his offering, and calls on the Lord. The sword, still unsheathed, has no terrors for him now. And the Lord gives him his answer before he calls, and hears him while he is still speaking (Isaiah 65:24).
Ornan had offered his threshing sledges as firewood. David did not use them. The fire came from above instead, and one writer reads it in two directions at once.
Ornan's threshing sledges are not used, as he had wished, to consume the sacrifice: God consumes it with fire from heaven. That is His character in judgment, but at the same time it is, as with Elijah, the sign given by the Lord that He has fully accepted the sacrifice.
David paid for what he offered here. He bought first and offered second, and one writer traces that pattern forward to Christ.
David stands before that altar. He buys and offers, and so meets the claim of God. He is a picture of our Lord, who bought us with the great price and offered Himself.
Another writer takes the picture further, then adds a caution about the man in it.
All these details show us Christ in David in a wonderful way. David pictures Him here, though we must not forget that his own sin was the cause of this whole scene. He is the mediator, intercessor, and priest, for he builds the altar and offers the sacrifice. The high priest is not even mentioned here, so as to leave all the place to David.
Safety came after acceptance, not before it. One writer follows that order right through to the believer today.
The God of the New Testament is the God of the Old. His love moved Him to act in mercy toward guilty creatures. In His love He also made known the need of a sacrifice, to deliver the guilty from the judgment they deserved. And we can now add: He has Himself provided the sacrifice. How safe everyone was that evening from any further visit by the destroying angel! God accepted the sacrifice, and so the sword went back into its sheath. He made that acceptance known by answering David from heaven with fire on the altar of burnt offering. How sure, then, is deliverance from the wrath to come for all who now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! God has raised Him from the dead.
The fire did more than end a plague. It marked out a site, and one writer draws a lasting principle from that.
The fire came down from heaven that day on the altar of burnt offering. By it David discovered where the temple was to be built and the altar set up. Israel would later carry on its worship at the very place where God had accepted the sacrifice. In principle it is the same now. True and acceptable worship is based on God's acceptance of the sacrifice.
- Accepted, not assumed — the fire was God's public answer that the offering pleased Him. David did not have to guess.
- Accepted by fire — fire speaks of God in judgment. Here it burns the sacrifice, not the guilty, and marks it as fully accepted.
- Accepted, so the sword rests — God accepted the sacrifice, and the sword went back into its sheath.
- Accepted through one man's cost — David bought the ground and paid for what he offered. He acted as mediator and priest, picturing the Lord who bought us and offered Himself.
- Accepted, so we worship — the temple rose where God accepted the sacrifice. True worship still rests on that acceptance.
And Jehovah spoke to the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.
After David's census, an angel stood over Jerusalem with a drawn sword. The sword went back into its sheath only after David built an altar on Ornan's threshing floor and offered sacrifices there. Commentators see in that one action the whole pattern of how God deals with guilty people.
The timing is the point. One writer notes that the angel acted only at God's word, and that the sword stayed drawn until the sacrifice was offered.
With the sword back in its sheath, everyone could be sure that no more judgment would come for the wrong that had brought this punishment. The Lord commanded the angel, and he sheathed his sword. Israel was safe now — not because they deserved it, and they never could have deserved it. They were safe, because the sword was sheathed in righteousness through grace... Until the sacrifice was offered, the angel's sword stayed drawn. So that it could be offered, God stopped the angel in his work of destruction, and let David know that he should sacrifice to Him.
Once the sacrifice was accepted, the sword had no work left. One writer traces what that peace covers, and how long it lasts:
Judgment is now complete and the offering is accepted. Justice has been satisfied, so the angel's sword has no further use. "Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath" (v. 27). Peace with God has been truly won at David's altar on Ornan's threshing floor, on the top of Moriah. That peace is won for Israel, and for anyone from the nations who, like Ornan, has seen David and accepted the sacrifice. From now on, as far as God's purposes in grace are concerned, this sword will never be drawn against Israel or Jerusalem again.
The place matters as much as the moment. The threshing floor belonged to a Jebusite, one of the Canaanite peoples Israel had never driven out of the land. One writer asks why God stopped there:
This occurred by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, for the Jebusite was in the land. The Canaanites still lived in the land... And, what is more, God marks His grace; for all is in grace here. It was there He stopped — the last place where one would have expected it — at the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Why there? Because there God meant to mark sovereign grace.
The sheathed sword changes the whole mood of that place:
Approving fire from heaven consumes the offerings, and every terror of judgment is over. The terrible symbolic sword has disappeared, put up into its sheath, and all is joy and happy worship on the threshing-floor of Ornan. What a change from verse 20! There, people standing on that very floor hid in fear from the messenger of death.
After this, David would not go back to the old altar at Gibeon. One writer explains what that refusal shows:
For David, the bronze altar at Gibeon was no longer a place of safety. It terrified him, and he would go there no more. Nothing set up under the law could reassure him any more, because the law was a ministry of condemnation. God had shown him another place to come to Him. It was the place chosen by grace, where divine judgment had been done away with. From now on, only that place could suit David.
One writer draws the scene forward to today:
The God of the New Testament is seen to be the God of the Old. His love moved Him to act in mercy towards guilty creatures. In His love, too, He made known the need of sacrifice, to deliver the guilty from their justly deserved judgment. And we can now add, He has Himself provided the sacrifice. How safe everyone was that evening from any further visit by the destroying angel. The sword went back in its sheath because God accepted the sacrifice, and He showed that by answering David with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
- Cause — Sin drew the sword. It stayed drawn until an altar stood on that floor. Only the sacrifice put it away.
- Command — The angel neither struck nor stopped on his own. God held his arm, God named the place, and God gave the word that sheathed the sword.
- Grace — Rescue came on a foreigner's threshing floor, the last place anyone would expect. The whole scene is marked by grace, not by anything earned.
- Reach — With justice satisfied, that altar won peace for Israel and for anyone, like Ornan, who accepted the sacrifice.
- Result — Terror turned to worship on the ground where people had hidden from death. David left the old altar at Gibeon behind for good.
At that time when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
David had counted his fighting men, a plague followed, and the angel's sword hung over Jerusalem until David bought Ornan's threshing floor and built an altar there. Here he sees that God has answered, and he keeps sacrificing on that spot — so what was the answer, and why did it fix the place of worship?
David had asked for the plague to stop, and the reply came as visible fire on the offering. David would not let Ornan supply the ground or the fuel. Nothing in this sacrifice belonged to another man:
David does not wish to give to God what belongs to another, but what is his own, just as Christ gave His own life. David pays for everything himself: the place, the threshing floor, the altar, and the burnt offerings. Ornan wanted his threshing-sledges to burn the sacrifice, but God burns it with fire from heaven instead. That fire shows His character in judgment. At the same time it is the Lord's sign that He has fully accepted the sacrifice.
The fire did more than end a plague. It also settled a question for the whole nation:
At the Lord's command the angel put away his sword, and David said that this was the house of the Lord God, and this the altar of burnt offering for Israel. The place where God accepted the sacrifice was to be the spot where Israel would worship. True worship is based on the acceptance of the sacrifice.
"He sacrificed there" marks a lasting change, not one act. David had built his altar while the angel still stood over him. Afterwards he would not walk back toward that sword, so the old tent of worship at Gibeon lost him:
David was given grace to read the writing on the Jebusite's floor. That sacred plan had shone with the glory of forgiving love. There he had seen that with his God "mercy triumphs over judgment" — a truth often repeated, but always sweet and blessed. So he keeps close by this floor. The grain his faith had trodden down there was the finest wheat, the very best of the wheat. Having tasted it, he dared not turn away from his own mercy. He had fed at an altar spread with the good things of a Father's love, so he could not go back to serving the tabernacle (Hebrews 13:10). He had not been afraid to prepare his altar in the angel's presence. But now he is afraid to return by way of the angel's sword.
The place itself carried a message. This altar stood on land bought from a Jebusite, one of the non-Israelite people who had held Jerusalem. A king offered on it, not a priest:
Here is an altar completely new, built by the man who was afraid to go to the other one. Does not David's sin become the occasion for showing that grace without law is the only foundation, even for the kingdom? It also shows that the priests of Aaron's line have nothing to do with it. For it is David the king who builds it, and sacrifices on it, and the Lord answers by fire. It is a new way, unknown to the law, and there you find both Israelite and Jebusite. What right had the priests who served at the altar in Gibeon to the altar the king built? And what right have those who plead works as their ground of acceptance with God to this altar? It is the expression of pure, unmixed, sovereign grace, without works.
David had long wanted to know where God would dwell. He learned it late, and not cheaply:
Only after a humbling experience did David come to know Mount Zion as the place God had chosen. In 1 Chronicles 21 and 22 we find that God's judgment first had to fall on his pride. Only after he had paid the full price did God show him the place for the Lord's house. To look away from everything natural and act only by God's thoughts always costs something. It calls for sacrifice.
- Answered — God replied with fire from heaven on the offering. That fire was His sign that He accepted the sacrifice.
- Accepted — God accepted the sacrifice there, so that ground became the place of worship. True worship rests on an accepted sacrifice.
- Anchored — David never went back to the old altar at Gibeon. He had tasted mercy at this floor, and he feared to return by way of the angel's sword.
- Open — a king built this altar on a Jebusite's land, not a priest. It was a new way, unknown to the law, with no place for works as a ground of acceptance.
- Costly — David paid the full price himself and gave God nothing that belonged to another. He found the chosen place only after God had judged his pride.