Araunah

Araunah (Hebrew: ''ʾǍrawnā'') was a Jebusite mentioned in the Second Book of Samuel, who owned the threshing floor on Mount Moriah which David purchased and used as the site for assembling an altar to God. The First Book of Chronicles, a later text, renders his name as Ornan ( ''ʾOrnān'').

Biblical narrative

The narrative concerning Araunah appears in both 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. The Samuel version is the final member of a group of narratives which together constitute the "appendix" (2 Samuel 21–24) of the Books of Samuel, which do not fit into the chronological ordering of the rest of Samuel. In the Samuel narrative, Yahweh was angry again both with the Israelites and David, King of Israel, who imposed a census on the Israelites, an order Joab reluctantly carried out. According to the version of the narrative presented in the Books of Chronicles, it was Satan who incited David to take the census. Yahweh regarded David's action as a sin, and so punished him, sending Gad the prophet to offer David a choice between three punishments:
*Seven years of famine,2 Samuel 24:12–13 (which counts the 4 years of famine that already happened before the census was completed per ), or (put more symmetrically) 3 ''more'' years of famine, as in and in the Septuagint translation of 2 Samuel.
*Three months of fleeing from an invader,
*Three days of plague from the Angel of the Lord.

David indicated that instead of falling into the hands of men, he would rather fall into the hands of God's mercy and discretion. An angel was sent to spread a plague. However, when the angel reached Jerusalem, God ordered the angel to stop; at this point, the angel was at Araunah's threshing floor, which David noticed. God instructed David to build an altar there, so David purchased the location from Araunah for a fair price, even though Araunah offered it to him freely. According to 2 Samuel 24:24, David paid fifty silver shekels for the threshing floor and the oxen; 1 Chronicles 21:25 states that David paid 600 gold shekels for the entire site where the threshing floor was located. Biblical scholar Hans-Peter Mathys noted:

Census

In the Books of Samuel, the census is said to indicate that there were 1,300,000 men fit for military service. The Book of Chronicles states that the figure was 1,570,000 men fit for military service.

Joab's reluctance to complete the census is thought by some scholars to have been due to a religious belief that the people belonged to God, and hence that only God should know how many there were.New American Bible, footnote Some scholars believe the motive for the census was pride, that David's numbering of the people was to show his strength as a king; his sin in this was relying on human numbers instead of God. Other scholars believe that a more mundane motive is the reason – that the knowledge gained from a census would enable David to impose more accurate taxes and levies, and thus the census would be unpopular with the people who were at risk of higher taxes or levies.'' Peake's Commentary on the Bible''

Identity of Araunah

The Bible identified Araunah as a Jebusite. Some biblical scholars believe that he may have been the local king at the time. The word ''araunah'' is not a personal name, but a title meaning "the lord" in Hurrian, which was borrowed into several languages of the ancient Near East.Gary A. Rendsburg, "Reading David in Genesis", '' Biblical Archaeology Review'', text available a
jewishstudies.rutgers.edu
accessed 26 January 2019. In , Araunah is referred to as a king: "... Araunah the king gave to the king .e., David.

Notes

* {{JewishEncyclopedia, url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=A&artid=1713, article=Araunah

Angelic visionaries
Books of Samuel people
Jebusites