David's census and the threshing floor of Araunah
2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21–22; 2 Chronicles 3:1
David's proud census brought a plague on Israel; it stopped at the threshing floor of Araunah, which David bought for an altar, the future site of the temple.
The king said to Araunah, “No, but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2 Samuel 24:24 (World English Bible)
Joab objected, but David insisted on counting his fighting men. Afterward his conscience struck him, and he chose to fall into God's hands rather than man's. The plague stopped at Araunah's threshing floor on Mount Moriah.
David refused to take the site as a gift, saying he wouldn't offer God something that cost him nothing. Solomon later built the temple there (2 Chronicles 3:1), on the same mountain range where Abraham had offered Isaac.
Places
JerusalemJordanGileadTyreNegebSidonDanBeershebaAroerJazerKadeshMount Moriah
Dating notes
Not precisely dated. It came late in David's reign, before he made preparations for the temple (1 Chronicles 22). The date shown is an estimate.