=22.= _the place of this threshing-floor_] The expression implies perhaps that David bought more than the mere area of the threshing-floor. _for the full price_] Genesis xxiii. 9 (Revised Version). ²³And Ornan said unto David, 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, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering; I give it all. ²⁴And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering without cost. =23.= _the meal offering_] Compare Leviticus ii. 1‒16. ²⁵So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. =25.= _gave ... for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight_] In 2 Samuel xxiv. 24, _bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver_. The huge discrepancy here between Chronicles and Samuel is noteworthy. If the price in Samuel, 50 shekels of silver for threshing-floor and oxen, seems somewhat small (compared with the 400 shekels paid by Abraham for the cave of Machpelah, Genesis xxiii. 15‒17), the 600 shekels of _gold_ in Chronicles is extravagantly large. It is accounted for by the fact that the Chronicler regarded the transaction, not as the acquisition merely of the site for the altar but of the area on which the Temple was afterwards built (see verse 22). No sum could well seem too large for the purchase of ground destined to be so holy. The figure 600 may have been chosen on the ground that it was equal to a payment of 50 shekels for each tribe. ²⁶And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. =26.= _peace offerings_] See xvi. 1, note. At the end of the verse LXX. (compare Peshitṭa) adds, _and consumed the burnt offering_. Compare Leviticus ix. 24; 1 Kings xviii. 38. The fire is not mentioned in 2 Samuel. =CHAPTER XXI. 28‒CHAPTER XXII. 1.= THE SELECTION OF THE SITE OF THE TEMPLE. ²⁸At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. =28.= _At that time_, etc.] The construction of this section must be carefully noted. chapter xxi. 28 is continued by chapter xxii. i, verses 29, 30 of chapter xxi. being a parenthesis. The division of chapters here is unfortunate. _At that time_] The phrase is taken up by “Then” of xxii. 1. The Chronicler wishes us to note that David regarded the success of his intercession at the floor of Ornan as an indication that this floor was God’s approved site for the Temple.