1 Chronicles 21 Eminent Domain

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
1 Chronicles 21:16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.

17 David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd,[c] have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”

David Builds an Altar
18 Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.

20 While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21 Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

22 David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”

23 Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”

24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

25 So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels[d] of gold for the site. 26 David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

27 Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29 The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.​

c. 1 Chronicles 21:17 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text (see 2 Samuel 24:17); Masoretic Text does not have the shepherd.
d. 1 Chronicles 21:25 That is, about 15 pounds or about 6.9 kilograms

This morning's commentary is from Biblestudytools.com.

If the census was entered upon in autumn, the beginning of the civil year, the nine and a half months it occupied would end at wheat harvest. The common way of threshing corn is by spreading it out on a high level area, and driving backwards and forwards upon it two oxen harnessed to a clumsy sledge with three rollers and some sharp spikes. The driver sits on his knees on the box, while another person is employed in drawing back the straw and separating it from the grain underneath. By this operation the chaff is very much chopped, and the grain threshed out.

that is, to burn the sacrifice of the oxen. Very little real import--the haste and the value of the present offered--can be understood in this country. The offering was made for instant use. Ornan, hereby hoping to terminate the pestilence without a moment's delay, "gave all," oxen, the large threshing machine, and the wheat.

At first he bought only the cattle and the threshing instruments, for which he paid fifty shekels of silver ( 2 Samuel 24:24 ); afterwards he purchased the whole property, Mount Moriah, on which the future temple stood. High in the center of the mountain platform rises a remarkable rock, now covered by the dome of "the Sakrah." It is irregular in its form, and measures about sixty feet in one direction and fifty feet in the other. It is the natural surface of Mount Moriah and is thought by many to be the rock of the threshing-floor of Araunah, selected by David, and continued by Solomon and Zerubbabel as "the unhewn stone" on which to build the altar [BARTLETT, Walks about Jerusalem; STANLEY].

He went in procession with his leading men from the royal palace, down Mount Zion, and through the intervening city. Although he had plenty of space on his own property, he was commanded, under peremptory direction, to go a considerable distance from his home, up Mount Moriah, to erect an altar on premises which he had to buy. It was on or close to the spot where Abraham had offered up Isaac.

David had to argue with the guy to get him to take payment. That was such a horrible flu or measles or whatever... the owner of the threshing floor wanted to give it away.... along with the wood for the fire and his oxen to sacrifice. David had to pay for it.... the people were dying because David ordered a census for no good reason.... in order to stop the plague that David created... he had to pay full price.

This little bit of information is from the easy English site.

In answer to David’s prayer, the LORD told the angel to put his sword away. The LORD had stopped the disease. Now the angel would not destroy Jerusalem. And David continued to make sacrifices there to the LORD.

The holy tent at which the priests should make sacrifices was about 4 or 5 miles from Jerusalem. It was in Gibeon. But David had built an altar as the LORD had told him. He did not go to Gibeon then. But he continued to worship God in this place. He knew that by the sacrifices on this altar he had caused the angel to stop his work.​

In today's lingo.....David got hacked.... He got a big head.... He was more interested in the number of likes he had on his instagram account than what was good for the country. Everyone knew.... he wasn't supposed to be checking those numbers.... but he did it anyway.... and now he had to pay or everyone who was attached to his account [the sheep] were going to get hacked. The virus was moving fast so David had to pay full price for the antivirus to get it reversed.

Eminent Domain.... the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation.​

:coffee:
 
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