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Ornan (Araunah) was a Jebusite who sold his threshing floor to King David, which later became the site of Solomon's temple.
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Also known as Araunah · Ornah · Arania
Ornan, also known as Araunah, was a Jebusite who owned a threshing floor in Jerusalem during the reign of King David (2Sa.24.16; 1Ch.21.15). After David sinned by taking a census of Israel, God sent a plague that killed 70,000 people (2Sa.24.15; 1Ch.21.14). When the angel of the Lord was about to destroy Jerusalem, God commanded the angel to stop at Ornan's threshing floor (2Sa.24.16; 1Ch.21.15). David was instructed by the prophet Gad to build an altar to the Lord on Ornan's threshing floor (2Sa.24.18; 1Ch.21.18). Ornan offered to give David the threshing floor and the oxen for the sacrifice, but David insisted on paying the full price (2Sa.24.21-24; 1Ch.21.22-25). David purchased the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver (2Sa.24.24) or 600 shekels of gold (1Ch.21.25). The threshing floor became the site where David built an altar and offered sacrifices to the Lord (2Sa.24.25; 1Ch.21.26). This location later became the site of Solomon's temple (2Ch.3.1).
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(active). (1 Chronicles 21:15; 2 Chronicles 3:1) [Araunah]
OR'NAN. 1 Chr 21:15. See Araunah.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
17 verses in 3 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H0771
But when the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
When Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out and bowed facedown before the king.
“Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” Araunah said. “To buy your threshing floor,” David replied, “that I may build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague upon the people may be halted.”
Araunah said to David, “May my lord the king may take whatever seems good to him and offer it up. Here are the oxen for a burnt offering and the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.
O king, Araunah gives all these to the king.” He also said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
“No,” replied the king, “I insist on paying a price, for I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
Then God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented from the calamity, and He said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Now Ornan was threshing wheat when he turned and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.
David came to Ornan, and when Ornan looked out and saw David, he left the threshing floor and bowed facedown before David.
Then David said to Ornan, “Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to the LORD. Sell it to me for the full price, so that the plague upon the people may be halted.”
Ornan said to David, “Take it! May my lord the king do whatever seems good to him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering—I will give it all.”
“No,” replied King David, “I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the LORD what belongs to you, nor will I offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the site.
At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.
Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.