Araunah

Biblical Account

Araunah is a Jebusite mentioned in 2 Samuel 24. In 1 Chronicles 21 and 2 Chronicles 3 he appears under the name Ornan. The Jebusites inhabited Jerusalem before its conquest by David.

After David took a census, a plague broke out in Israel. According to 2 Samuel 24:16, God halted the plague while the angel of the LORD who was bringing it was by "the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite." A threshing floor is a broad, open area where grain is beaten to separate the kernels. The prophet Gad told David to build an altar there.

When David came to him, Araunah offered to give him the threshing floor, along with oxen for the burnt offering and wood for fuel, free of charge. David replied, "neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing," and paid for them (2 Samuel 24:24). He built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and the plague ceased. First Chronicles 21:20 adds that Ornan saw the angel while he was threshing wheat and that his four sons hid themselves.

Significance Within Scripture

Chronicles links this site directly to the Temple. David declared it to be the site of the house of God (1 Chronicles 22:1). Second Chronicles 3:1 records that Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem "in mount Moriah … in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite." Araunah is remembered as the original owner of the Temple site. The New Testament does not mention him.

Interpretations and Debates

• The difference in price: Second Samuel 24:24 says that David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver, while 1 Chronicles 21:25 says that he paid six hundred shekels of gold "for the place." One harmonizing interpretation holds that the former figure was the price of the threshing floor and the oxen, while the latter was the price of the entire Temple precinct. Another view holds that the two books reflect different traditions.
• The term "king": The Hebrew text of 2 Samuel 24:23 can be read as referring to Araunah as a "king." On this basis some scholars conjecture that he was a former ruler of the Jebusites, but the text does not state this explicitly.
• Connection with Moriah: Because 2 Chronicles 3:1 calls this site Mount Moriah, a long-standing traditional interpretation identifies it with the place of the offering on Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered up Isaac in Genesis 22. No verse directly states that the two places are the same.

In the Korean Church

In Korean church preaching, David's words "neither will I offer burnt offerings … of that which doth cost me nothing" are frequently cited in sermons on costly devotion and offerings. Because Araunah's threshing floor became the site of the Temple, the account also often appears in sermons on church building projects or building fund offerings. Such sermons usually focus on David's repentance and sacrifice rather than on Araunah himself.