Useful Bible Studies > 2 Samuel Commentary > chapter 24
In answer to David’s prayer, God again sent the prophet (holy man) called Gad to him. Gad told David to build an altar on Araunah’s threshing-floor. That was the place where God’s special servant, the angel of the Lord, was standing (24:16).
An altar was the place where the priests offered sacrifices to God. Those sacrifices were animals; the priests first killed them, then burned them in the fire on the altar. It was a form of prayer; as the smoke rose into the sky, so the prayers of God’s people reached God in heaven.
In 2 Samuel 5:6-9, David took the city called Jerusalem from the foreigners called Jebusites. However, David dealt well with the foreigners who supported good and right government. We see that with Araunah, who belonged to the Jebusites. David permitted Araunah to live on the north side of David’s city of Jerusalem. Araunah owned much land, on which he grew grain. He brought it to his threshing-floor, a flat piece of land by the top of the hill. There, he separated the grain from the dried plant material with it. When he had completed this task, the grain was clean and ready to store or to sell.
David’s city (the original city called Jerusalem) was on the south side of that hill, just below Araunah’s threshing-floor. It was by the south-east corner of what we today call the Old City of Jerusalem. Araunah’s threshing-floor became the place of the temple, God’s house on earth (1 Chronicles 22:1). This is the place that Deuteronomy 12:5-14 describes. Today, that place is called Temple Mount.
Next part: Araunah gives great honour to David (2 Samuel 24:19-21)
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© 2023, Keith Simons.