1 Chronicles 21:18–27, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
1 Chronicles 21:18–27
Ornan's floor is purchased and the sword is sheathed
Gad sends David to Ornan's floor
The angel of the LORD commands Gad to say to David that he should go up and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. David goes up at Gad's word. Ornan turns back and sees the angel; his four sons with him hide themselves. Ornan is threshing wheat.
David comes to Ornan, and Ornan looks and sees David, goes out of the threshingfloor, and bows himself to David with his face to the ground. David says, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD; thou shalt grant it me for the full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
Full price, fire, and a sheathed sword
Ornan says, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Lo, I give thee the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all. King David says to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price. I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.
David gives Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. He builds an altar, offers burnt offerings and peace offerings, and calls upon the LORD. The LORD answers from heaven by fire upon the altar. The LORD commands the angel, and he puts up his sword again into the sheath thereof. Samuel names Araunah, fifty shekels of silver, and a narrower purchase. Do not harmonize 600 gold with 50 silver. Payment does not erase coercive royal power, repair seventy thousand deaths, or become a modern land claim. Full price marks refusal of a free floor; it does not prove the negotiation lacked pressure.
How this should shape us
If a public holy site is taken from a working person, write a valuation, seek informed consent, pay fully, disclose conflicts, and keep independent accounts. Spiritual urgency does not excuse pressure, a symbolic underpayment, or treating an altar as a blanket over a mass grave.
Teach it back
Explain 1 Chronicles 21:18–27 in your own words. Include its movement, placement in Chronicles, one Samuel-Kings comparison, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one modern use the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Samuel and Chronicles differ on owner name, property scope, price, speech, fire, and angel details; proposals about a larger site purchase are possible but cannot be asserted as fact.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
1 Chronicles 21:18–27, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 21:18–27
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 21:18–27, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Supports: Complete thesis comparison of witnesses, narrative structure, census differences, Ornan's site, David's responsibility, and the episode's effect on Davidic memory.
Shaffo, The Purpose of the Census Narrative in Chronicles (2022), method pp. 1–11; 2 Samuel 24 pp. 12–31; 1 Chronicles 21–22:1 pp. 33–78; legacy pp. 110–126
Supports: Only the exposed late-Persian and alternative-history framing plus the fact of deliberate rewriting; not uninspected detailed claims.
Levin, 'The Chronicler's Rewriting of the History of Israel: Why and How?' (2020), pp. 173–188; official opening, XML metadata, and chapter record
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Supports: Complete Greek-witness translation comparison and introductory controls, used where the Septuagint materially differs without treating a translation as the underlying Greek text.
NETS, 1 Supplements (2009), translator introduction pp. 342–343 and 1 Supplements 21:18–27 within pp. 344–368
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 1 Chronicles 21:18–27, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 21:18–27
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 1 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 21:18–27, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗open access masters thesis
The Purpose of the Census Narrative in Chronicles and Its Impact on David's Legacy
Peter Shaffo
Department of Bible, Bar-Ilan University, 2022
Supports: Complete thesis comparison of witnesses, narrative structure, census differences, Ornan's site, David's responsibility, and the episode's effect on Davidic memory.
Exact location: Shaffo, The Purpose of the Census Narrative in Chronicles (2022), method pp. 1–11; 2 Samuel 24 pp. 12–31; 1 Chronicles 21–22:1 pp. 33–78; legacy pp. 110–126
Open source ↗peer reviewed scholarly book chapter limited access
The Chronicler's Rewriting of the History of Israel: Why and How?
Yigal Levin
Writing and Rewriting History in Ancient Israel and Near Eastern Cultures, Mohr Siebeck, 2020
Supports: Only the exposed late-Persian and alternative-history framing plus the fact of deliberate rewriting; not uninspected detailed claims.
Exact location: Levin, 'The Chronicler's Rewriting of the History of Israel: Why and How?' (2020), pp. 173–188; official opening, XML metadata, and chapter record
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility: Chronicles in Its Ancient Context
Isaac Kalimi
Poznan Theological Studies repository edition, pp. 7-25, 2019 repository edition
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Exact location: Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Open source ↗septuagint translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: 1 Supplements
C. E. V. Nixon
Oxford University Press; International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 2009
Supports: Complete Greek-witness translation comparison and introductory controls, used where the Septuagint materially differs without treating a translation as the underlying Greek text.
Exact location: NETS, 1 Supplements (2009), translator introduction pp. 342–343 and 1 Supplements 21:18–27 within pp. 344–368
Open source ↗