Useful Bible Studies > 2 Samuel Commentary > chapter 24
Araunah wanted to give some of his most valuable possessions to David. It was a truly generous act. He wanted to give these things to David so that David could offer them to God.
David accepted everything that Araunah was trying to give. However, David would not accept them as a gift. If David only gave someone else’s possessions to God, then David himself would have given nothing. Araunah had shown a truly generous attitude towards David, and David was grateful for it. However, it was David himself who must be generous on this occasion.
So, David insisted that he must pay the full price for all these things. The price that appears in verse 24 is much smaller than the price in 1 Chronicles 21:25. There are various possible explanations. However, the price in 2 Samuel 24:24 is clearly too small to be the price for the whole property (compare Genesis 23:15). So perhaps David handed over this small amount at once, as a promise that he would pay the whole price later.
That was the first of many payments that David would make towards the costs of the temple, God’s house in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles chapters 22, 28 and 29). God did not allow David to build the temple – but he allowed David to provide generously for the cost of its construction. It was God who gave David the wealth to make this possible (8:6-12). David realised that fact (1 Chronicles 29:12-16). In his most generous acts, he was only giving back to God what God had given to him.
Next part: The place that God chose for his temple (2 Samuel 24:25)
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