2 Samuel 24:18–25, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Samuel 24:18–25
David Purchases the Threshing Floor and Builds an Altar
Gad sends David to Araunah's threshing floor
Gad tells David that day to rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite. David goes as the LORD commanded. Araunah sees the king and servants, bows, and asks why he has come. David says, To buy the threshingfloor, to build an altar, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
A Jebusite's working floor becomes the site. The aim named to Araunah is the staying of a plague already lethal.
He will not offer what costs him nothing; the plague is stayed
Araunah offers oxen, threshing instruments, and wood: all these did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king; the LORD thy God accept thee. David says, Nay; I will surely buy it at a price; neither will I offer burnt offerings of that which costs me nothing. He buys the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. Chronicles records a different sum and a wider purchase in gold. David builds the altar, offers burnt offerings and peace offerings; the LORD is entreated for the land, and the plague is stayed from Israel.
Payment, sacrifice, and stayed plague close the book. They do not erase seventy thousand dead, the disputed incitement, or Joab's overruled objection. Costly worship is required of the king in this ending; it is not a receipt that makes the people whole.
How this should shape us
When repair takes resources, the responsible leader should pay, keep the names and numbers of the harmed in view, and refuse a cheap religious gesture that shifts expense onto people already used. An altar is not a blanket over a mass grave.
Teach it back
Explain 2 Samuel 24:18–25 in your own words. Include its narrative movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, one person or cost power can obscure, and one use the context rules out.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
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: Interpreters differ over source layers, chronology, historicity, characterization, textual readings, and whether the court story mainly legitimates, indicts, or holds David in sustained tension. The package states the received movement first and labels reconstructions.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
2 Samuel 24:18-25, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 24:18-25
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 582–583, translation and all translator notes attached to 24:18-25
Supports: Current publisher-visible controls for textual plurality, historical and archaeological limits, David's reception, political power, sexual violence, trauma, and the relationship with Kings and Chronicles; abstract-only chapters carry only their exposed claims.
Oxford Handbook of King David (2026), official Introduction pp. xxiii–xxvii and chapter 3 abstract and bibliographic record, pp. 37–53
Supports: One early-composition and historiographical-optimism proposal, literary structure, source integration, ethical poetics, and the limits of treating the proposal as consensus.
Garsiel, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5 (2010), complete open-access article pp. 1–42, especially the introduction and sections on composition, comparative structure, literary poetics, and historiographical value
Supports: Only the exposed proposal that 2 Samuel 24:16 is an interpolation and that 1 Chronicles 21 and 4Q51 reflect later readjustment; the full argument was not inspected.
Rofé, 'Writing, Interpolating and Editing: 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 as a Case Study,' Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3.3 (2014), pp. 317–326; official publisher abstract and bibliographic record only
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 reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 2 Samuel 24:18-25, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 24:18-25
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Samuel with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 582–583, translation and all translator notes attached to 24:18-25
Open source ↗modern scholarly handbook limited access
The Oxford Handbook of King David
Edited by Mahri Leonard-Fleckman and Christine Mitchell
Oxford University Press, 2026
Supports: Current publisher-visible controls for textual plurality, historical and archaeological limits, David's reception, political power, sexual violence, trauma, and the relationship with Kings and Chronicles; abstract-only chapters carry only their exposed claims.
Exact location: Oxford Handbook of King David (2026), official Introduction pp. xxiii–xxvii and chapter 3 abstract and bibliographic record, pp. 37–53
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as a Historiographical Source
Moshe Garsiel
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5, 2010; published online 2011
Supports: One early-composition and historiographical-optimism proposal, literary structure, source integration, ethical poetics, and the limits of treating the proposal as consensus.
Exact location: Garsiel, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5 (2010), complete open-access article pp. 1–42, especially the introduction and sections on composition, comparative structure, literary poetics, and historiographical value
Open source ↗peer reviewed scholarly article abstract
Writing, Interpolating and Editing: 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 as a Case Study
Alexander Rofe
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3(3), pp. 317-326, 2014
Supports: Only the exposed proposal that 2 Samuel 24:16 is an interpolation and that 1 Chronicles 21 and 4Q51 reflect later readjustment; the full argument was not inspected.
Exact location: Rofé, 'Writing, Interpolating and Editing: 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 as a Case Study,' Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3.3 (2014), pp. 317–326; official publisher abstract and bibliographic record only
Open source ↗