ARAUNAH

(A·rauʹnah).

The Jebusite owner of the threshing floor purchased by King David for building an altar to Jehovah. This action resulted as the divinely indicated means of ending a scourge provoked by David’s numbering of the people.​—2Sa 24:16-25; 1Ch 21:15-28.

Araunah apparently offered the place, along with cattle and wood implements for the sacrifice, without charge, but David insisted on paying a price. The record at 2 Samuel 24:24 shows that David purchased the threshing floor and the cattle for 50 silver shekels ($110). However, the account at 1 Chronicles 21:25 speaks of David’s paying 600 gold shekels (c. $77,000) for the site. The writer of Second Samuel deals only with the purchase as it relates to the altar location and the materials for the sacrifice then made, and it thus appears that the purchase price referred to by him was restricted to these things. On the other hand, the writer of First Chronicles discusses matters as relating to the temple later built on the site and associates the purchase with that construction. (1Ch 22:1-6; 2Ch 3:1) Since the entire temple area was very large, it appears that the sum of 600 gold shekels applies to the purchase of this large area rather than to the small portion needed for the altar first built by David.

A natural stone scarp still exists today under the Muslim Dome of the Rock occupying part of the original temple site, and this stone may represent the early threshing floor of Araunah.

In the Chronicles record Araunah is called Ornan.​—1Ch 21:18-28; 2Ch 3:1.