20140513 Tuesday, May 13 2014
2 Samuel 24: Why Did King David Purchase The Temple Mount?

by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan

"David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 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"

Beginning in the prophetic time of Abraham (see A History Of Jerusalem: Melchizedek's Salem and Isaac: Rising From The Ashes), the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has become one of the most famous, and most-contested, places on Earth. It has been for centuries (see the Fact Finder question below) and will continue to be so right until the day of the Messiah's return (see The Battle Of The End-Time Prophets).

King David (see Israel In History and Prophecy: King David) was the Israelite purchaser of the place that is known today as the Temple Mount - years before there was a Temple there. As we will read, David actually purchased the property for another purpose, but it was later used as the site of the Temple built by David's son and successor King Solomon.

But first, a clarification.

As it is translated in the King James Version, 2 Samuel 24:1 seems like a contradiction.

"24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." (2 Samuel 24:1 KJV)

What was the LORD supposedly angry with Israel for? And why would the LORD cause David to do something - that the LORD would then punish David for doing? The answer, as made plainly obvious by the account of the events that followed, was that 2 Samuel 24:1 is actually two objective statements: "the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel" and "he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah."

Who actually was the "he" that incited David? The answer is found in Chronicles where the same incident is translated more clearly: "Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel" - to which "the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel." 2 Samuel 24:1 was translated correctly, but it was not translated clearly.

"21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." (1 Chronicles 21:1 KJV)

So it was then that Satan incited David to sin, to which the LORD's wrath was inflicted.

"24:2 For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.

24:3 And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?

24:4 Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.

24:5 And they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer: 24:6 Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon, 24:7 And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.

24:8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

24:9 And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men." (2 Samuel 24:2-9 KJV)

All humans are sinners. Ironically, but usually not hypocritically, those who strive the hardest to obey the LORD sometimes sin more than as-yet uncalled people because Satan targets the repentant. The major difference between Israel's first king, Saul (see 1 Samuel 15: Saul's Impeachment), and David who replaced him (see 1 Samuel 16: The Anointing Of David), was that Saul made self-righteous excuses when he sinned, while David truly repented.

"24:10 And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

24:11 For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 24:12 Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

24:13 So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

24:14 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

24:15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. 24:16 And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

24:17 And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote 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." (2 Samuel 24:10-17 KJV)

In response to the prophet Gad's counsel (Gad had been allied with David throughout the wilderness years of the civil war with Saul i.e. 1 Samuel 22:5), David was to build "an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite." It was one of the highest points of the city - winnowing (separating the wheat from the chaff, was done by tossing grain into the air, whereby the light chaff was blown away, while the wheat fell straight back down) was done. David purchased the property for the immediate use of building an altar there.

"24:18 And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite. 24:19 And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded. 24:20 And Araunah looked, 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.

24:21 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.

24:22 And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood. 24:23 All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.

24:24 And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing.

So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

24:25 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." (2 Samuel 24:18-25 KJV)

Fact Finder: Why do Judaism (which is not the original religion that the LORD gave to Israel; see Israel Never Knew Purim, Hanukkah Or Judaism and Israel In History and Prophecy: Judaism), Roman Catholic/Protestant "Christianity" and the Muslim religion all claim Jerusalem for themselves?
See A Biography Of Abraham: Abrahamic Religions, A History Of Jerusalem: Constantine and Muhammad and Constantine's Crusades In History And Prophecy