Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 19 Feb, 2023
The first half of 2 Sam. 24 opens by saying that God was angry at the nation of Israel, and it goes on to describe how God set in motion a series of events by which He would punish the nation.
According to the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21, God allowed Satan to put the idea into David’s head of taking a military census, and David fell for it. And because David failed to seek God’s will in the matter and failed to conduct the census in a God-honoring way – as outlined in the law, David had to confess it as a sin to the Lord and ask forgiveness.
God responds by sending the prophet Gad with a message for David to choose one of three ways by which God would punish the nation, and David chooses the option which would put the nation most directly in the hands of God, in hopes that God would show mercy.
“So Yahweh bestowed a plague in Israel from that morning until the appointed time. And 70,000 men died from the people – from Dan [at the north end of Israel] even to Beersheba [at the south end of Israel].”
Depending on how you count, that’s between 6 and 9% of all the men in Israel, almost one out of every 10.
Josephus, in his Antiquities, drew from oral traditions to describe it further, “...the terrible malady seized them before they were aware, and brought them to their end suddenly, some giving up the ghost immediately with very great pains and bitter grief, and some were worn away by their distempers, and had nothing remaining to be buried, but as soon as ever they fell were entirely macerated; some were choked, and greatly lamented their case, as being also stricken with a sudden darkness; some there were who, as they were burying a relation, fell down dead, without finishing the rites of the funeral.”
When great calamities rock our world – like the 7.5 Richter Scale earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria this month, it does not mean that God has disappeared. In the case of this plague in David’s kingdom, the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21 informs us that, “God commissioned an angel to Jerusalem to destroy her, and, as he destroyed, Yahweh watched…”
Evil is not out-of-control in the world. It is carefully watched by God, carefully limited by His orders, and carefully designed to accomplish His will in getting people to worship Him.
As I pointed out in the first verse in this chapter the allusions to the curses against idolatry in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, and to God’s acts of judgment against Israel in the book of Judges, forces the conclusion that God’s justice blazed forth in this plague to end the lives of many hypocrites in Israel who had no love for God and who were worshiping idols.
But at the same time, we see in this story how God used this plague to rivet the attention of the king and the elders of Jerusalem, as well as the attention of a gentile Jebusite family, and bring them all to a new level of fearing God and worshiping Him.
The parallel passage notes that “David... saw the angel of Yahweh standing between the earth and the heavens, with his sword drawn in his hand reaching against Jerusalem, so David fell down along with the elders upon their faces, covered in sackcloths.”
Note that God is portrayed as the one who stopped the plague:
v.16 “Then the angel stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy her, but Yahweh switched tactics/relented/repented concerning this calamity and said to the angel who was causing destruction among the people, ‘Enough. Drop/hold/stay/relax your hand now.’”
In the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21:27, it says that, “Yahweh spoke to the angel, and he returned his sword to his sheath.”
The plague ended at God’s command, not because some human actor manipulated God into ending it, but because it was God’s will.
I have made the case in my Jonah sermon series (and in my 1 Samuel 15 sermons), that the Hebrew word for “relent/repent,” when applied to God, consistently means a “change of tactics;” that God was doing things one way, and then He switched to doing things another way. It does not necessarily follow that God changed His mind; He could know ahead-of-time when He would implement the shift in action. Nothing takes Him by surprise or causes Him to act out-of-accord with His character and will, but from our human point of view, it looks different when we see God shift gears from judgment to mercy, even though He is always doing both at the same time.
Once God had achieved His purposes, it was time to bring an end to the plague, and, once again, it should amaze us that God chose to let David play a part in bringing the plague to an end!
Notice the wording “until the appointed/designated time” (unfortunately deleted by the NLT and CEV). The O.T. phrase describing the tabernacle as the “tent of meeting” uses the same word for “appointment/meeting.” The ending point of this disaster was planned by God, under God’s control, and it involved an encounter between Him and the human actors in His redemptive plan.
It is not clear how long the plague lasted and how much time was mercifully shaved off of the three days.
“And the angel of Yahweh was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
Regarding the spelling and pronunciation of this guy’s name, the passage in Hebrew spells this guy’s name a few different ways: for instance “Ornah” in v.16, “Aranyah” in v.18, Araunah (or Aravnah if you use the Shephardic pronunciation) in vs. 20-24, and “Ornan” in 1 Chronicles 21. The spellings are all very similar in Hebrew – moreso than they would seem in English, and they’re all referring to the same guy3.
And he was a Jebusite. You may remember that Jerusalem was a Jebusite city before David conquered it and made it his capitol. The Jebusites were one of the Canaanite nations whom God had told the Hebrews to dispossess and destroy4, but there were exceptions made for some Canaanites who committed to serve Yahweh and to live according to His laws. Many of them lived in service to the Hebrews, and this is generally assumed to have been the case with Araunah the Jebusite.
Jerusalem is situated on a cluster of hills, and the fortress-city which David occupied was on the Southeastern-most of these hills.
Araunah, however, had a farm on an elevation north of the city, outside the city gates.
As the years went by, all of that cluster of hills was developed into a big metropolitan area, but much less of it was occupied in David’s day.
When God commands the death angel to stop, He simultaneously allows that supernatural angel to become visible to human actors, and so we read of David and the elders, as well as Araunah and his sons, looking up and seeing this fearsome angel in the air above Jerusalem. Our historian temporarily splits between the perspective of David in the next few verses and the perspective of Araunah in vs.20-21, offering a contrast in their responses to the fear of God.
And David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel striking among the people, and he said, “Look, it was I who sinned, and it was I who committed iniquity [the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles adds, “Wasn’t it I who said to conduct a census among the people?”], but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s household!” (and 1 Chron. adds “but with Your people please don’t let there be plague!”)
Do you see what David is doing? He is interceding with God for mercy for the people of God and asking God to punish him rather than the people!
As such, David prefigures Jesus’ coming work of substitutionary atonement, where He asked God the Father to forgive the people who sinned while dying on the cross to pay for their sins.
Let me also point out that David does not actually say that the people were innocent; he just says, “What have they done?” But as for himself, David is aware of something wrong in particular that he has done, so he confesses it again to God, “I was the one who said to conduct the census,” and he calls it a “sin” and “iniquity.”
He had already confessed it and asked forgiveness back in v. 10, so v.17 may just be an echo of part of that, rather than a full model of confession and forgiveness,
but in the following verses, the offering of an animal sacrifice as an atonement for sin brought to completion God’s merciful process of dealing with the sins of David and of the people.
In response to David’s prayer, the angel of the LORD gives the Prophet Gad a response to relay to David (1 Chron. 21:18), “Go up to erect an altar to Yahweh on the threshing-floor of Araunah/Ornan the Jebusite.”
Can I point out that the “angel of Yahweh” is both executing God’s judgment and communicating God’s word.
This phrase “the angel of the LORD” occurs before this passage in the Old Testament to describe the entity who appeared to Hagar (Gen. 16), to Abraham (Gen. 22), to Moses (in the burning bush - Ex. 3), to Baalam the prophet of Moab (Num. 22), and to Gideon (Judges 6) and to Samson’s parents (Judges 13).
While the Hebrew word for “angel” can simply mean “messenger,” some of these appearances seem to be God Himself – perhaps the 2nd person of the Trinity before His incarnation.
Christ is portrayed in the New Testament as the “Word of God” and as the “coming judge,” so what “the angel of the LORD” is doing here is not out-of-character with the roles of Jesus the Son of God. Just food for thought.
So in v.19, David is walking the 450 yards out of the Southwest gate of Jerusalem along with the elders of the city, some priests, and some servants, down the slight decline that bridges to the neighboring hilltop to the South and up the slope of that hill toward Araunah’s farm, to build an altar there and to offer a sacrifice to atone for the sins of his people and appease God’s wrath.
That’s when this special meeting happens between the King from Jerusalem, the Angel in the air, and the Jebusite on the hilltop.
Meanwhile, the 1 Chron. account says that “Ornan/Araunah had been threshing wheat…”
Apparently he had grown wheat in a nearby field and he and his four sons had gathered it in and were whacking the wheat stalks with sticks (or maybe pulling heavy trolleys back and forth over them) to break the straw and hulls away from the wheat berries.
It think it is significant that this Jebusite’s reaction was to hide when he saw the angel.
Remember, David’s reaction was to talk to God when he saw the fearsome angel.
I think that the difference between their reactions was due to a difference in religion. Araunah later tells David that Yahweh is “your God” (not “our God”), which raises my suspicion that Araunah didn’t really consider Yahweh to be his God, and that would leave him without a God who could help him when this fearsome angel appeared in the sky over his threshing floor. When pagans encounter frightening things, they have no all-powerful God to appeal to, but when Christians are afraid, they pray to God!
Fear of this strange supernatural event seems to drive Araunah from here on out. Perhaps there was a barn or storage unit near the threshing floor, and Araunah and his sons ran for cover when the angel in the air scared them (as though an earthen building could protect them from a spiritual threat!). Then from that place at the top of the hill, Araunah peered out, and behold, another spectacle, this time down on the ground: David the king with his retinue was crossing over toward him!
Araunah may not have known what to do about a scary angel, but he did know what to do about a king coming to visit! He immediately went out David’s direction and bowed to the king. (This was nose-to-the-ground bow.)
Surely Araunah put it together that the king’s parading out like this must have been linked to the death-angel’s appearance, and, in the darkness of his mind, he probably figured that a king might be just what was needed to deal with this scary angel. However, at the same time, Araunah is probably not a little afraid of what this king might ask him to do to get rid of this heavenly threat.
When Araunah asked why David had come out, he may have been afraid that David would require him or his sons to be some kind of sacrifice to appease the gods. After all, David was the head hauncho, so David certainly wouldn’t sacrifice himself to appease the gods.
So, when David replies that all he wants is to buy the title to Araunah’s threshing-floor, it must have been a real relief! David even offered to pay the full price for it in silver coin, according to the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles.
Araunah’s response to David in v.22 could be interpreted in a couple of different ways:
It is a common custom in many places in the East to respond to anyone who expresses desire for something you have, to immediately offer to give it to them for free. This may be rooted in a fear of it being stolen.
I discovered this custom for the first time several decades ago in college, when a Jewish-background friend of mine showed me a music album that he had just gotten. When he showed it to me, I began gushing about what a great album it was and saying I wanted to get it too, so he promptly offered it to me. I spluttered that I meant I wanted to buy my own copy, and then he explained this custom to me. And if you go to my house today, that album is still there on the rack in the jazz section. So it really is a thing, and maybe that’s what Araunah was doing,
or maybe Araunah was figuring that this king was going to take it from him anyway, so he might as well offer to give it away for free, and then maybe the king wouldn’t kill him over it or anything.
Or maybe it was more out of fear of the angel of death hovering ominously over his property. “Maybe if I just give up the farm along with the cattle and the farm-tools, and the wheat we just harvested, maybe this god will cool down enough that I can escape with my life and move my family somewhere else.”
Araunah seems to have a decent understanding of how the Levitical sacrifices were made, but fear seems to be his motivation.
But the king said to Araunah, “No. For I must actually buy it off of you at cost, for I must not offer up to Yahweh my God unearned offerings/that cost me nothing.”
The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles offers the further explanation that this is, “because I must not lift up to the LORD that which belongs to you.”
When I was a little boy, my parents would give me and my brother a few pennies on the way to the worship service on the Lord’s Day, and, when the offering plate was passed around, I would put the pennies in... and make sure my brother put all his pennies in and didn’t keep any back in his pocket! That might be a good way to train small children in the mechanics of church-giving, but at some point, children need to learn that it is their own money they should give to the Lord, not Mommy and Daddy’s money.
As soon as our children start earning money with their first lawn-mowing or babysitting jobs, we teach them to set aside 10% to give as a tithe in the church offering box, then to set aside 50% in savings, and then to plan how they want to spend the remaining 40%. (My youngest son told me this week that he remembers how crestfallen he was when he made his first two dollars and realized that there would only be 80 cents left to buy candy! But now he has reconciled to the idea, and as the kids get older, they are thankful to have savings available for the bigger, more important things in life.
David’s principle also shows up with in-kind gifts and with our time.
When we donate to charity, it isn’t our brand-new, in-fashion clothes we donate; it’s our old, used clothes that we don’t want any more.
When we donate a car, it’s not a new one, it’s a used one that we don’t need anymore.
And so with other items: we give away things that were given to us that we didn’t want.
Furthermore, when we volunteer time to charity, it’s our spare time, not our valuable, productive time.
Of course, that’s better than nothing, but how do you think God feels about such gifts?
Matthew Henry commented: “What have we our substance for but to honour God with it? and how can it be [any] better bestowed?”
At the end of the Old Testament, God said some pretty challenging words through the Prophet Malachi: “1:8 ...when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? [Try offering that] to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably? ... 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me... In tithes and offerings… 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this… If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for you…” (NKJV)
Right now, that’s what David needed. An angel with a devouring sword was poised over his town, and he needed to do something quick!
By the way, there were actually two annual tithes and one triennial tithe in the Mosaic law, and then offerings were above and beyond those tithes. Generosity is the standard.
So David purchased the threshing-floor and the oxen with 50 silver shekels.
Now, Bible skeptics claim that there is an error here in the Bible. 2 Samuel says that David paid Araunah 50 silver shekels, but 1 Chronicles 21:25 says that David paid him 600 gold shekels.
Ahh, but there is a difference between the two passages in their description of what David was buying:
In 2 Samuel here, the smaller sum is just “for the threshing floor and the oxen.”
The larger sum, according to 1 Chronicles 21, was for the whole “place.”
This indicates to me that David initially paid Araunah 50 silver shekels to build the altar, but when he realized later that this was to be the site of the temple that Solomon would build, David went back and bought the entirety of Araunah’s farm so that he could annex the whole hill to his city and have plenty of room for a temple complex and more homes around it5.
Once David had purchased the spot, he built an altar, probably by arranging 12 big rocks in a pile, then he had his priests lay wood on the altar – perhaps including the threshing flails and ox-yokes that Araunah had suggested, then they slaughtered a couple of the bulls, poured the blood on and around the altar, and arranged the pieces of the bull on top of the wood upon the altar. Then David prayed for God to stop the plague and have mercy on Israel.
The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles says that this was when the LORD told the angel to return his sword to its sheath.
Then, before the priests could could put coals from their censers on the altar to light it up, God sent fire from heaven to ignite it and burn it up!
The sending of fire from heaven was a way that God put His stamp of approval upon new altars built in new places,
as He did for Abel’s first altar in Genesis 4,
Moses’ new portable altar in Leviticus 9,
Gideon’s altar in Judges 6.21,
and Elijah’s new altar on Mt. Carmel (1 Ki. 18:38).
The next couple of bulls were then slaughtered by priests for the peace offerings. Their fat was thrown onto the altar-fire, but their meat was boiled and eaten by everybody there to symbolize that fellowship with God and with each other was restored.
This is how 2 Samuel ends, with the blood of sacrificial animals bringing atonement between sinful man and holy God.
The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles gives us a little epilogue which explains the significance of the particular location of Araunah’s threshing-floor.
This was the same spot, Mount Moriah, where Abraham, a thousand years previous, had built an altar on which to offer up his son Isaac, and God had provided a ram as a substitute to die in Isaac’s place6.
Now, the command of the LORD through the prophet Gad to build an altar again there, combined with the appearance of the angel of the LORD again in this location, and this dramatic mitigation of the plague upon the nation of Israel, all came together in David’s mind, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to lead him to declare that the altar of burnt offering for all of Israel was no longer to be at the high place in Gibeah of Saul, but now it was to be at this spot.
This threshing-floor of Araunah then became the center around which the Jewish temple was built under Solomon7, and re-built under Zerubbabel (after the Chaldean army destroyed it), and again under Herod the Great.
Herod’s temple was the temple that Jesus prophesied would be destroyed so that no two building blocks would be left together, and that prophecy came true in 70 AD.
Then around 690A.D., it was re-built once again as an Islamic shrine by ʿAbd al-Malik, and we know it today as “The Dome of the Rock.” It’s the same place.
The lesson of the altar there is that peace comes between God, man, angels, and even nature –
not by ignoring sin and saying, “Well, that’s o.k.; we all make mistakes!” (That’s Islam)
not by denying sin and saying, “Don’t worry, there is no God, so there is no right and wrong. If you struggle with feelings of guilt, or if a natural disaster falls, just go find a therapist, take some pills and find your own way to personal peace.” (That is Secular Humanism)
and it’s also not by paying penance for sin – doing extra good deeds to balance out your bad deeds (That’s Buddhism and Roman Catholicism) –
no, there is one – (and only one) way to peace with God, and that is the way which God Himself graciously outlined for us in the Bible, and that is what David models for us at the end of 2 Samuel: an innocent life killed as a substitute to satisfy God’s justice (that “the wages of sin is death”), thus saving the lives of those who were guilty.
We also see this in the N.T. book of Hebrews 13:10 “We [as Christians] have an altar from which the men who minister in relation to the tabernacle [that is, those who practice Judaism] do not have authority to eat, 11 for the blood of such animals is brought in as a sin-offering into the holy places by the high priest, [and] their bodies are incinerated outside the camp, 12 so also Jesus, in order that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate… 15 Let it be through Him, therefore, that we offer up a thanks-offering always to God, which is fruit of lips confessing His name...” (NAW)
David’s sacrifice and prayer on behalf of the nation of Israel foreshadowed what Jesus Christ would do a thousand years later when He offered His own sinless life as a sacrifice on the cross to propitiate God’s justice against our sin. Jesus praying on the cross (and continues now to pray from the right hand of the throne in heaven) for God to have mercy on us and save us on the basis of His death.
Don’t be like Araunah who hid in fear and bewilderment at God’s wrath against sin. Instead follow the lessons of 2 Samuel 24, confessing your sin, trusting the substitutionary atonement of the Lamb of God to cover your sin, praying for God’s mercy, and enjoying renewed fellowship with God.
Greek OT |
Brenton |
DRB |
KJV |
NAW |
MT 2Sam24 |
NAW |
MT 1Chron21 |
15 καὶ ἡμέραι θερισμοῦ πυρῶν, καὶ ἔδωκεν κύριος ἐν Ισραηλ θάνατον ἀπὸ X πρωίθεν ἕως ὥρας ἀρίστου, καὶ ἤρξατο ἡ θραῦσις ἐν τῷ λαῷ, καὶ ἀπέθανεν ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ ἀπὸ Δαν καὶ ἕως Βηρσαβεε ἑβδομήκοντα χιλιάδες ἀνδρῶν. |
15
... and they were
the days of wheat-harvest; and
the Lord sent a pestilence |
15
And the Lord sent a pestilence |
15
So the LORD sent a pestilence |
15 So Yahweh bestowed a plague in Israel from that morning until the appointed time. And 70,000 men died from the people - from Dan even to Beersheba. |
(טו) וַיִּתֵּן יְהוָה דֶּבֶר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל מֵהַבֹּקֶר וְעַד עֵת מוֹעֵדE וַיָּמָת מִן הָעָם מִדָּן וְעַד בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע שִׁבְעִים אֶלֶף אִישׁ. |
14 So Yahweh bestowed a plague in Israel, and 70,000 men fell from Israel. |
(יד)
וַיִּתֵּן
יְהוָה דֶּבֶר
בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל |
16 καὶ ἐξέτεινεν ὁ ἄγγελος τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ [εἰς] Ιερουσαλημ τοῦ διαφθεῖραι αὐτήν, καὶ παρεκλήθη κύριος ἐπὶ τῇ κακίᾳ καὶ εἶπεν τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῷ διαφθείροντι ἐν τῷ λαῷ Πολὺ νῦν, ἄνες τὴν χεῖρά σου· καὶ ὁ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἦν παρὰ τῷ ἅλῳ Ορνα τοῦ Ιεβουσαίου. |
16
And the angel of the Lord stretched out his hand [against]
Jerusalem
to destroy it, and the Lord repented
|
16
And when the angel of the Lord had stretched out his hand [over]
Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord had
|
16
And when the angel stretched out his hand [upon]
Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented
[him]
|
16 Then the angel stretched out his hand {against} Jerusalem to destroy her, but Yahweh switched tactics concerning this calamity and said to the angel who was causing destruction among the people, “Enough. Drop your hand now.” And the angel of Yahweh was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. |
(טז) וַיִּשְׁלַח יָדוֹ הַמַּלְאָךְ Fיְרוּשָׁלִַם לְשַׁחֲתָהּ וַיִּנָּחֶםG יְהוָה אֶל הָרָעָה וַיֹּאמֶר לַמַּלְאָךְ הַמַּשְׁחִיתH בָּעָם רַב עַתָּה הֶרֶף יָדֶךָ וּמַלְאַךְ יְהוָה Iהָיָה עִם גֹּרֶן הָאוֹרְנָהJ הַיְבֻסִיK. |
15 And God commissioned an angel to Jerusalem to destroy her, and, as he destroyed, Yahweh watched, then He switched tactics concerning this calamity and said to the angel who was causing destruction, “Enough. Drop your hand now.” And the angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. |
(טו) וַיִּשְׁלַח הָאֱלֹהִים xמַלְאָךְ לִירוּשָׁלִַם לְהַשְׁחִיתָהּ וּכְהַשְׁחִית רָאָה יְהוָה וַיִּנָּחֶם עַל הָרָעָה וַיֹּאמֶר לַמַּלְאָךְ הַמַּשְׁחִית X רַב עַתָּה הֶרֶף יָדֶךָ וּמַלְאַךְ יְהוָה עֹמֵד עִם גֹּרֶן אָרְנָן הַיְבוּסִי. |
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16 Then David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between the earth and the heavens, with his sword drawn in his hand reaching against Jerusalem, so David fell down along with the elders upon their faces, covered in sackcloths. |
(טז) וַיִּשָּׂא דָוִיד אֶת עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא אֶת מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה עֹמֵד בֵּין הָאָרֶץ וּבֵין הַשָּׁמַיִם וְחַרְבּוֹ שְׁלוּפָה בְּיָדוֹ נְטוּיָה עַל יְרוּשָׁלִָם וַיִּפֹּל דָּוִידL וְהַזְּקֵנִים מְכֻסִּים בַּשַּׂקִּים עַל פְּנֵיהֶם. |
17 καὶ εἶπεν Δαυιδ πρὸς κύριον ἐν τῷ ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν τὸν ἄγγελον τύπτοντα ἐν τῷ λαῷ καὶ εἶπεν Ἰδοὺ ἐγώ εἰμι ἠδίκησα καὶ ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ἐκακοποίησα, καὶ οὗτοι τὰ πρόβατα τί ἐποίησαν; γενέσθω δὴ ἡ χείρ σου ἐν ἐμοὶ καὶ ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ πατρός μου. |
17 And David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel smiting X the people, and he said, Behold, it is I that have done wrong X X X X X X X XM, but these sheep what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray [thee], be upon me, and upon my father's house. |
17 And David said to the Lord, when he saw the angel striking X the people X X: X It is I; I am he that have sinned, X I have done wickedly: these that are the sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I beseech [thee], be [turned] against me, and against my father's house. |
17 And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote X the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray [thee], be against me, and against my father's house. |
17 And David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel striking among the people, and he said, “Look, it was I who sinned, and it was I who committed iniquity, but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s household!” |
(יז) וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד אֶל יְהוָה בִּרְאֹתוֹ אֶת הַמַּלְאָךְ הַמַּכֶּה בָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי חָטָאתִי וְאָנֹכִי Nהֶעֱוֵיתִי וְאֵלֶּה הַצֹּאן מֶה עָשׂוּ תְּהִי נָא יָדְךָ בִּי וּבְבֵית אָבִי. |
17 Then David said to God, “Wasn’t it I who said to conduct a census among the people? So, I am the one who sinned, and the wrong was wrong that I caused, but these sheep, what have they done? Yahweh my God, please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s household, but with Your people please don’t let there be plague!” |
(יז) וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִיד אֶל הָאֱלֹהִים X X X הֲלֹא אֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי לִמְנוֹת בָּעָם X וַאֲנִי הוּא אֲשֶׁר חָטָאתִי וְהָרֵעַ הֲרֵעוֹתִי וְאֵלֶּה הַצֹּאן מֶה עָשׂוּ יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי תְּהִי נָא יָדְךָ בִּי וּבְבֵית אָבִי וּבְעַמְּךָ לֹא לְמַגֵּפָה. |
18 καὶ ἦλθεν Γαδ πρὸς Δαυιδ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Ἀνάβηθι [καὶ] στῆσον τῷ κυρίῳ θυσιαστήριον ἐν τῷ ἅλωνι Ορνα τοῦ Ιεβουσαίου. |
18
And Gad came to David in that day, and said to him, Go up, [and]
|
18
And Gad came to David X that
day, and said X X:
Go up, [andO]
|
18
And Gad came X
that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto
the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ar |
18 Then Gad came to David on that day and said to him, “Go up {and} erect an altar to Yahweh on the threshing-floor of Aranah the Jebusite.” |
(יח) וַיָּבֹא גָד אֶל דָּוִד בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא וַיֹּאמֶר Pלוֹ עֲלֵה Qהָקֵם לַיהוָה מִזְבֵּחַ בְּגֹרֶן אֲרַנְיָהR הַיְבֻסִי. |
18 Then the angel of Yahweh spoke to Gad to say to David that David should go up to erect an altar to Yahweh on the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. |
(יח) וּמַלְאַךְ יְהוָה אָמַר אֶל גָּד לֵאמֹר לְדָוִיד X X X כִּי יַעֲלֶה דָוִיד לְהָקִים מִזְבֵּחַ לַיהוָה בְּגֹרֶן אָרְנָן הַיְבֻסִי. |
19 καὶ ἀνέβη Δαυιδ κατὰ τὸν λόγον Γαδ, καθ᾿ ὃν [τρόπον] ἐνετείλατο [αὐτῷ] κύριος. |
19 And David went up according to the word of Gad, as X [] the Lord commanded [him]. |
19 And David went up according to the word of Gad X which the Lord had commanded [him]. |
19 And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as X the LORD commanded. |
19 So David went up according to the word of Gad, according to what Yahweh had commanded. |
(יט) וַיַּעַל דָּוִד כִּדְבַר גָּד כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּהS יְהוָה. |
19 So David went up by the word of Gad which he had spoken in the name of Yahweh. |
(יט) וַיַּעַל דָּוִיד בִּדְבַר גָּד xאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה. |
20 καὶ διέκυψεν Ορνα καὶ εἶδεν τὸν βασιλέα καὶ τοὺς παῖδας αὐτοῦ παραπορευομένους ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν Ορνα καὶ προσεκύνησεν τῷ βασιλεῖ ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν. |
20 And Orna looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on before him: and Orna went forth, and did obeisance to the king with his face to the earth. |
20 And Areuna lookedX , and saw the king and his servants coming X towards him: 21 And X going out he worshipped the king, [bowing with] his face to the earth, |
20 And Araunah looked X, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground. |
20 Presently Araunah looked down and saw the king with his servants crossing over toward him, so Araunah went forth and bowed down before the king with his nostrils to the ground. |
(כ) וַיַּשְׁקֵף אֲרַוְנָה וַיַּרְא אֶת Tהַמֶּלֶךְ וְאֶת עֲבָדָיו עֹבְרִים עָלָיו וַיֵּצֵא אֲרַוְנָה וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ לַמֶּלֶךְ אַפָּיו אָרְצָהU. |
20 Presently, Ornan turned and saw the angel, and his four sons with him hid themselves. (Now, Ornan had been threshing wheat.) 21 Then David came up to Ornan, and Ornan peered down and saw David, then he went forth from the threshing-floor and bowed down before David, nostrils to the ground. |
(כ) וַיָּשָׁב אָרְנָן וַיַּרְא אֶת הַמַּלְאָךְ וְאַרְבַּעַת בָּנָיו עִמּוֹ מִתְחַבְּאִים וְאָרְנָן דָּשׁ חִטִּים. (כא) וַיָּבֹא דָוִיד עַד אָרְנָן וַיַּבֵּט אָרְנָן וַיַּרְא אֶת דָּוִיד X X X X וַיֵּצֵא X מִן הַגֹּרֶן וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ לְדָוִיד אַפַּיִם אָרְצָה. |
21 καὶ εἶπεν Ορνα Τί ὅτι ἦλθεν ὁ κύριός μου ὁ βασιλεὺς πρὸς τὸν δοῦλον αὐτοῦ; καὶ εἶπεν Δαυιδ Κτήσασθαι παρὰ σοῦ τὸν ἅλωνα τοῦ οἰκοδομῆσαι θυσιαστήριον τῷ κυρίῳ, καὶ συσχεθῇ ἡ θραῦσις ἐπάνω τοῦ λαοῦ. |
21 And Orna said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? and David said, To buy of thee the threshing-floor, in order to build an altar to the Lord that the plague may be restrained from off the people. |
and
X said:
Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said
[to him]:
To buy the thrashingfloor of thee, |
21 And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people. |
21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my master the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To purchase from you this threshing-floor in order to build an altar for Yahweh, that this loss may be mitigated from upon the people.” |
(כא) וַיֹּאמֶר אֲרַוְנָהV מַדּוּעַ בָּא אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶל עַבְדּוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד לִקְנוֹת מֵעִמְּךָ אֶת הַגֹּרֶן לִבְנוֹת מִזְבֵּחַ לַיהוָה וְתֵעָצַר הַמַּגֵּפָה מֵעַל הָעָם. |
22 Then David said to Ornan, “Please give to me the site of your threshing-floor so I may build an altar to Yahweh on it. In exchange for a full-amount of silver let it be given to me that this loss may be mitigated from upon the people.” |
(כב) וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִיד אֶל אָרְנָן תְּנָה לִּי מְקוֹם הַגֹּרֶן וְאֶבְנֶה בּוֹ מִזְבֵּחַ לַיהוָה בְּכֶסֶף מָלֵא תְּנֵהוּ לִי וְתֵעָצַר הַמַּגֵּפָה מֵעַל הָעָם. |
22
καὶ εἶπεν Ορνα
πρὸς Δαυιδ
Λαβέτω καὶ
ἀνενεγκέτω
ὁ κύριός μου
ὁ βασιλεὺς
[τῷ κυρίῳ]
τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐν
ὀφθαλμοῖς
αὐτοῦ· ἰδοὺ
οἱ βόες εἰς
X ὁλοκαύτωμα,
καὶ οἱ |
22
And Orna said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer [to
the Lord]
that which is good in his eyes: behold, |
22
And Areuna
said to David: Let my lord the king take, and offer, |
22 And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto X X him: behold, here be oxen for X burnt sacrifice, and X threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for X wood. |
22 Then Araunah said to David, “Let my master the king take and offer up what is good in his eyes! See, the oxen can be for the whole-burnt-offering, and the threshing-flails and the gear of the oxen can be for the wood! |
(כב) וַיֹּאמֶר אֲרַוְנָה אֶל דָּוִד יִקַּח וְיַעַל אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ הַטּוֹב Wבְּעֵינָו רְאֵה הַבָּקָר לָעֹלָה וְהַמֹּרִגִּיםX וּכְלֵי הַבָּקָר לָעֵצִים. |
23 Then Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my master the king do what is good in his eyes. See, I have donated the oxen for the whole-burnt-offerings and the threshing-flails for the wood, and the wheat for the grain-offering – all of it I donate!” |
(כג)
וַיֹּאמֶר
אָרְנָן
אֶל דָּוִיד
קַח
לָךְ
וְיַעַשׂ
אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ
הַטּוֹב בְּעֵינָיו
רְאֵה נָתַתִּי
הַבָּקָר לָעֹלוֹת
וְהַמּוֹרִגִּים
X
X
לָעֵצִים
וְהַחִטִּים
לַמִּנְחָה
|
23
τὰ πάντα ἔδωκεν
Ορνα X X τῷ
βασιλεῖ, |
23
Orna X X gave
all to the king: |
23
All these things Areuna [as] |
23
All these things
did Araunah, as |
23
All of it Araunah donates, O king, to the king!” |
(כג)
הַכֹּל
נָתַן אֲרַוְנָה
הַמֶּלֶךְY
לַמֶּלֶךְ |
||
24 καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς πρὸς Ορνα Οὐχί, ὅτι [ἀλλὰ] κτώμενος κτήσομαι παρὰ σοῦ ἐν ἀλλάγματι καὶ οὐκ ἀνοίσω τῷ κυρίῳ θεῷ μου ὁλοκαύτωμα δωρεάν· καὶ ἐκτήσατο Δαυιδ τὸν ἅλωνα καὶ τοὺς βόας ἐν ἀργυρίῳ σίκλων πεντήκοντα. |
24
And the king said to Orna, Nay, X [but]
I will surely buy it of thee at a [fair]
price, and I will not offer to the Lord my God |
24
And the king answered X |
24
And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; |
24 But the king said to Araunah, “No. For I must actually buy it off of you at cost, for I must not offer up to Yahweh my God unearned offerings.” So David purchased the threshing-floor and the oxen with 50 silver shekels. |
(כד) וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶל אֲרַוְנָה לֹא כִּי קָנוֹ אֶקְנֶה מֵאוֹתְךָ בִּמְחִיר וְלֹא אַעֲלֶה לַיהוָה אֱלֹהַי עֹלוֹת חִנָּם וַיִּקֶן דָּוִד אֶת הַגֹּרֶן וְאֶת הַבָּקָר בְּכֶסֶף שְׁקָלִים חֲמִשִּׁים. |
24 But David the King said to Ornan, “No, for I must actually buy it with a full-amount of silver, because I must not lift up to Yahweh that which belongs to you, nor may I offer up unearned offerings.” 25 So in exchange for that place, David gave Ornan gold shekels in the amount of 600. |
(כד) וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ דָּוִיד לְאָרְנָן לֹא כִּי קָנֹה אֶקְנֶה X בְּכֶסֶף מָלֵא כִּי לֹא אֶשָּׂא אֲשֶׁר לְךָ לַיהוָה וְהַעֲלוֹת עוֹלָה חִנָּם. (כה) וַיִּתֵּן דָּוִיד לְאָרְנָן X בַּמָּקוֹם שִׁקְלֵי xזָהָב מִשְׁקָל שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹתAA. |
25 καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν ἐκεῖ Δαυιδ θυσιαστήριον κυρίῳ καὶ ἀνήνεγκεν ὁλοκαυτώσεις καὶ εἰρηνικάς· [καὶ προσέθηκεν Σαλωμων ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτῳ, ὅτι μικρὸν ἦν ἐν πρώτοις.] καὶ ἐπήκουσεν κύριος τῇ γῇ, καὶ συνεσχέθη ἡ θραῦσις ἐπάνωθεν Ισραηλ. |
25 And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered up whole-burnt-offerings and peace-offerings: [and Solomon made an addition to the altar afterwards, for it was little at first.] And the Lord hearkened to the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. |
25 And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered holocausts and peace offerings: and the Lord became merciful to the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. |
25 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. |
25 Then David built an altar to Yahweh there and offered up whole-burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and Yahweh responded to prayers for the land, and the loss was mitigated from upon Israel. |
(כה) וַיִּבֶן שָׁם דָּוִד מִזְבֵּחַ לַיהוָה וַיַּעַל עֹלוֹת וּשְׁלָמִים וַיֵּעָתֵר יְהוָה לָאָרֶץAB וַתֵּעָצַר הַמַּגֵּפָה מֵעַל יִשְׂרָאֵלAC. |
26 Then David built an altar to Yahweh there and offered up whole-burnt-offerings and peace offerings and called out to Yahweh, Who answered him with fire out of the heavens upon the altar of whole-burnt-offering! 27 And Yahweh spoke to the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath. |
(כו) וַיִּבֶן שָׁם דָּוִיד מִזְבֵּחַ לַיהוָה וַיַּעַל עֹלוֹת וּשְׁלָמִים וַיִּקְרָא אֶל יְהוָה וַיַּעֲנֵהוּ בָאֵשׁ מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם עַל מִזְבַּח הָעֹלָה. (כז) וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה לַמַּלְאָךְ וַיָּשֶׁב חַרְבּוֹ אֶל נְדָנָהּ. |
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28 And at that moment, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him at the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered-sacrifices there. |
28 בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֔יא בִּרְא֤וֹת דָּוִיד֙ כִּי־ עָנָ֣הוּ יְהוָ֔ה בְּגֹ֖רֶן אָרְנָ֣ן הַיְבוּסִ֑י וַיִּזְבַּ֖חAD שָֽׁם׃ |
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29 Now, the dwelling-place of Yahweh (which Moses had made in the wilderness) and the altar for whole-burnt-offering were, at that time, at the high place in Gibeon, |
29 וּמִשְׁכַּ֣ן יְ֠הוָה אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂ֙ה מֹשֶׁ֧ה בַמִּדְבָּ֛ר וּמִזְבַּ֥ח הָעוֹלָ֖ה בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֑יא בַּבָּמָ֖ה בְּגִבְעֽוֹן׃ |
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30 but David was not able to go before His presence to seek-guidance from God due to his being overwhelmed by the presence of the sword of the angel of Yahweh. |
30 וְלֹא־יָכֹ֥ל דָּוִ֛יד לָלֶ֥כֶת לְפָנָ֖יו לִדְרֹ֣שׁ אֱלֹהִ֑ים כִּ֣י נִבְעַ֔ת מִפְּנֵ֕י חֶ֖רֶב מַלְאַ֥ךְ יְהוָֽה׃ ס |
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22:1 Then David said, “This is it: the house of the God Yahweh! Now let this be the altar for whole-burnt-offerings for Israel!” |
22:1 וַיֹּ֣אמֶר דָּוִ֔יד זֶ֣ה ה֔וּא בֵּ֖ית יְהוָ֣ה הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים וְזֶה־מִּזְבֵּ֥חַ לְעֹלָ֖ה לְיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ ס |
1Including Matthew Henry (citing Bishop Patrick), Keil & Delitzsch (citing Kimchi), Targums, Arabic, & Syriac versions
2Along with Andrew Willett, John Gill, and Robert Jamieson
3Tsumura (NICOT) suggested that his name meant “lion,” putting down Mazar’s claim that it meant “lord.”
4Genesis
10:15-16 “Canaan became the father of Sidon, his
firstborn, and Heth and the Jebusite and the
Amorite...”
Exodus 34:11 "Be
sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am
going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the
Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.”
Deut.
20:17 "But you shall utterly destroy them, the
Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite
and the Jebusite, as the LORD your God has commanded
you”
Josh. 3:10 Joshua said, "By
this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He
will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the
Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and
the Jebusite. (NASB)
5Matthew Henry and John Gill came to the same conclusion (citing Montanus in support), as did Robert Jamieson and Goldman (Soncino commentary). Willett had basically the same idea. The Talmud claims that David exacted 50 shekels from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, thus 2 Sam. gives the per tribe amount, and 1 Chron. gives the total amount, but this doesn’t explain the difference between one being in gold and the other being in silver, and it is not in keeping with David’s principle of not offering other people’s stuff as an offering.
6Genesis 22:2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." (NKJV)
72 Chron. 3:1 “Now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” (NKJV)
AMy
original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. NAW is my translation.
When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics or greyed-out text, I
put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a
wording which is different from all the other translations, I
underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in
my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the
Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original
text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a
word which is in the original text, I insert an X. I also place an X
at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English
translation is singular. I occasionally use colors to help the
reader see correlations between the various editions and versions
when there are more than two different translations of a given word.
The only known Dead Sea Scrolls containing 2 Samuel 24 are 4Q51
Samuela containing parts of verses 16-22 and dated
between 50-25 BC. Where the DSS is legible and in agreement with the
MT, the MT is colored purple. Where the
DSS supports the LXX or Vulgate with omissions or text not in the
MT, I have highlighted with
yellow the LXX and its translation into English, and where I
have accepted that into my NAW translation, I have marked it with
{pointed brackets}.
In the parallel MT Hebrew readings from 1
Chron. 21, I have colored orange the
words which are spelled differently and colored grey
the words which are not in the 2 Sam. text. In most cases, the
orange words are synonyms for the words in the 2 Sam. text. It is
clear that the differences between them are not the result of
accidental copy errors, but rather are a result of a purposeful
editing process. Tsumura commented that in almost every case the
Psalms edition uses standardized Hebrew spelling with full spellings
of long vowel consonants, so it was written to be read,
whereas the 2 Samuel edition would sound practically the same but
was written to be heard. The 2 Sam. text seems to be the
earlier edition, and 1 Chron. the later edition.
BLXX & Vaticanus literally “in.”
CThe Greek is literally “the hour of dinner,” as though the Hebrew were עת אכל.
DVulgate reads “in.”
EGreek and Old Latin read literally “until the hour of mealtime,” agreeing with the Talmud “until noon” (Ber. 62b). Syriac reads “until evening,” and Targums explain, “from the time when the daily burnt-offering was slain until its blood was sprinkled.” The Hebrew word moed could denote a time when parties meet together, and that could fit with the ending happening when David met God and the angel at Araunah’s place. (Goldman)
F1 Chron, LXX, Syriac, Targums, and Vulgate all insert a preposition here.
GCf. same verb in 1 Samuel 15:29 “(and, what's more, Israel shall be divided in two); He will not turn back and He will not switch tactics, for He is not a man to switch tactics.” (NAW)
Hcf.
1 Samuel 13:17 “Then the
destruction/raiders/demolition-crew went forth from the
Philistine position…”
cf. Isaiah 54:16b “...I
myself created the destroyer to spoil.”
Westminster
Morphology tags this word as a noun. Davidson’s
Analytical as well as the Open Scriptures Morphology
tag it as a Hiphil participle – which might or might not be a
substantive (noun). Beall & Banks Parsing Guide tags it
as Piel Infinitive construct. Pointing indicates that this is an
adjective modifying “angel,” and there are disjunctive
cantillations before and after “rav.”
IDSS = “standing” (עומד) which is also what the Syriac reads, but this is the reading of the 1 Chron. parallel passage, not of 2 Sam. The LXX, Vulgate, and Targums support the MT with “was at,” but the practical upshot is the same.
JThe MT, DSS, LXX, and Syriac of this verse, as well as the MT of 1 Chron. all support the short form of this name “Ornah” here, but Masoretic scribes switched the “r” and the “v/u” to match the way this name is spelled later in this chapter, which also adds a syllable in the middle of the name (הָאֲרַוְנָה), but only the Vulgate follows that here. Targums read both ways here.
KDSS inserts the text of 1 Chron. 21:16 here.
LDSS is obliterated at this point, but doesn’t have space to include this word. But even without the subject stated explicitly, David would still be assumed, since he is the subject of the first verb in the verse.
MVaticanus omits the second phrase which is in the MT and LXX, “And it is I who have become the evil doer.”
NDSS instead הרעה הרעתי which is the reading of 1 Ch 21:17.
OThis “and” is not actually in the Vulgate, just in Douay’s English translation. (It is also not in the MT.)
PDSS and Vulgate omit “to him.” It doesn’t change the meaning at all, though.
QDSS, Old Latin, and LXX insert “and,” but there is no such conjunction in the Syriac, Vulgate, or Targums. In 1 Chron., the MT has a lamed prepositional prefix instead. Vulgate (constitue) and Syriac (בני) indicate “build,” thus the NIV, but the Hebrew text of both 2 Sam. and 1 Chron. is from קום (“raise up”).
RAranyah. Qere spelling אֲרַוְנָה is what is followed in the Vulgate and in the standard English versions, but the LXX (Orna), Syriac (Aran), Targums (Arven) and 1 Chron. (Ornan) are more like the original MT. Names, however, are particularly susceptible to variant spellings because they are no more than sounds (which sound different in different languages), whereas other words have particular meanings that can be translated from one language to another with more continuity.
SCuriously, Vulgate, Syriac, and LXX all add a direct object “him,” but DSS supports the MT without the “him.”
TDSS follows 1 Chron. from here rather than 2 Sam.
Ucf. other such genuflections in Samuel: David to Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:41), David to Saul (24:9), Abigail to David (25:23, 41), Saul to the ghost (28:14), Woman of Tekoa to David (2 Sam. 14:4) Absalom to David (14:33), and Achimaaz to David (18:28).
VDSS appears to insert “to the king” here, but it doesn’t change the story at all, because he is already assumed to be speaking to David.
WQere suggests inserting a penultimate yod (בְּעֵינָיו) to make the plural more obvious, but this doesn’t affect the meaning.
XIt is curious that the Syriac (“ploughshare”), LXX (“wheels”), and Vulgate (“cart”) are so different from the MT (“threshing-flail/sledge-hammer/pulverizer”). Gill suggests a resolution in his commentary: “not flails, such as are used by us, but wooden sledges, drays or carts drawn on wheels, which were filled with stones, and the bottom of them stuck with iron teeth, and were drawn by oxen to and fro over the sheaves of corn.” The DSS becomes illegible before this part of the verse and there is no legible manuscript containing the rest of this chapter.
YLXX and Old Latin omit this duplicate “the king,” while the Syriac substitutes “David” for it. Older versions interpreted it that Araunah was “a king” (but the Hebrew definite article demands that it be interpreted “the king” if that were the case, and there is no circumstantial support from the text that he was a king). Newer versions interpret the he prefix to the Hebrew word for “king” as a vocative particle (“O”) instead of a definite article (“the”). The vocative interpretation is affirmed by Keil & Delitzsch.
ZAn echo of the statement in Leviticus 1:4 “And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sacrifice to be burned up, and it will be accepted for him, to make atonement on his behalf.” (NAW) Vulgate (votum) and Targums (corban) add “gift,” but to accept the gift in this case is to accept the person. Syriac and LXX, on the other hand, read “bless,” but the concept isn’t too far distant.
AALXX and Syriac of the 1 Chron. passage agree with 2 Sam. at 50 shekels, but Vulgate supports the MT’s 600.
ABcf. the same phrase in 21:14 “...God [instead of Yahweh] responded to prayers for the land..”
ACThis repeats the phrase from v.21, except with “Israel” as the object instead of “the people,” but they are synonymous.
ADSyriac adds “many.”