18 And the messenger of Jehovah spake unto Gad, saying for David, 'Surely David doth go up to raise an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.' 19 And David goeth up by the word of Gad, that he spake in the name of Jehovah. 20 And Ornan turneth back, and seeth the messenger, and his four sons 'are' with him, hiding themselves, and Ornan is threshing wheat. 21 And David cometh in unto Ornan, and Ornan looketh attentively, and seeth David, and goeth out from the threshing-floor, and boweth himself to David—face to the earth. 22 And David saith unto Ornan, 'Give to me the place of the threshing-floor, and I build in it an altar to Jehovah; for full silver give it to me, and the plague is restrained from the people.' 23 And Ornan saith unto David, 'Take to thee—and my lord the king doth that which is good in his eyes: see, I have given the oxen for burnt-offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for a present; the whole I have given.' 24 And king David saith to Ornan, 'Nay, for I surely buy for full silver; for I do not lift up that which is thine to Jehovah, so as to offer a burnt-offering without cost.' 25 And David giveth to Ornan for the place shekels of gold 'in' weight six hundred; 26 and David buildeth there an altar to Jehovah, and offereth burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and calleth unto Jehovah, and He answereth him with fire from the heavens on the altar of the burnt-offering. 27 And Jehovah saith to the messenger, and he turneth back his sword unto its sheath.
28 At that time when David seeth that Jehovah hath answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificeth there; 29 and the tabernacle of Jehovah that Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt-offering, 'are' at that time in a high place, in Gibeon; 30 and David is not able to go before it to seek God, for he hath been afraid because of the sword of the messenger of Jehovah.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Chronicles 21:18-30
Chapter Contents
David's numbering the people.
No mention is made in this book of David's sin in the matter of Uriah, neither of the troubles that followed it: they had no needful connexion with the subjects here noted. But David's sin, in numbering the people, is related: in the atonement made for that sin, there was notice of the place on which the temple should be built. The command to David to build an altar, was a blessed token of reconciliation. God testified his acceptance of David's offerings on this altar. Thus Christ was made sin, and a curse for us; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him, God might be to us, not a consuming Fire, but a reconciled God. It is good to continue attendance on those ordinances in which we have experienced the tokens of God's presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth. Here God graciously met me, therefore I will still expect to meet him.