📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 21:23
What does 1 Chronicles 21:23 mean?
"Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.”"
— 1 Chronicles 21:23 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to Yahweh on it. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”
Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.”
King David said to Ornan, “No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
Explanation
This verse captures a moment of remarkable generosity in the middle of a national crisis. Ornan (also called Araunah in 2 Samuel 24), a Jebusite who owned a threshing floor in Jerusalem, is speaking to King David, offering to give him everything he needs at no cost — the land itself, oxen to sacrifice as burnt offerings, the wooden threshing sledges to use as fuel for the fire, and wheat for the accompanying grain offering. In plain language, Ornan is saying: take whatever you need, free of charge, and may the king do whatever seems right to him.
The context is critical to understanding the weight of this offer. David had sinned by taking a census of Israel in a way that reflected pride and reliance on military strength rather than trust in God (1 Chronicles 21:1-8). As judgment, a plague struck Israel, killing thousands. When the destroying angel reached Jerusalem and stood at Ornan's threshing floor, God relented from further destruction. The prophet Gad instructed David to build an altar there and offer sacrifices to stop the plague and seek the Lord's mercy (21:18-19). When David approached Ornan to purchase the site, Ornan — recognizing the gravity of the moment, having seen the angel himself — immediately offered to give everything necessary, no charge required.
Theologically, this scene highlights two important themes. First, it shows genuine repentance and intercession: David is desperately seeking to make atonement and turn away God's wrath through obedient sacrifice. Second, and
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