The Threshing-Floor Altar

18That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and set up an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

19So David went up according to the word of Gad, just as Yahweh had commanded.

20Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants passing by him. So Araunah went out and bowed down to the king with his face to the ground.

21And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to Yahweh, so that the plague may be stopped from being upon the people.”

22Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his eyes. Look, the oxen are for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the implements of the oxen are for the wood.”

23Araunah the king gave all this to the king. And Araunah said to the king, “May Yahweh your God accept you.”

24But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price. I will not offer to Yahweh my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the cattle for fifty shekels of silver.

25There David built an altar to Yahweh and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh responded to the land, and the plague was restrained from Israel.