The Census and Ornan's Threshing Floor

"And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." Joab: "why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?" The total: "all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand." "But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab."

Gad offers three choices: three years of famine, three months of defeat, or three days of the LORD's sword. Seventy thousand die. "And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem." Ornan, threshing wheat, sees the angel; his four sons hide.

"So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight. And David built there an altar unto the LORD… and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering." David fears to go to Gibeon. "Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel."

God or Satan?

2 Samuel 24:1: "the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David." 1 Chronicles 21:1: "Satan stood up against Israel." Without the article, satan may mean "an adversary" rather than the figure of Job 1–2. Explanations: later theology distinguished God's sovereignty from an adversary's agency; both speak of God permitting the test. See the 2 Samuel passage page.

Totals and price

Samuel: Israel 800,000, Judah 500,000; Chronicles: 1,100,000 and 470,000. Samuel: the threshing floor and oxen for 50 shekels of silver; Chronicles: "the place" for 600 shekels of gold. Chronicles may mean the whole site, not only the floor. Seven years (Samuel) vs three years (Chronicles) of famine also differ.

The temple site

Only Chronicles identifies this place as the site of the temple (22:1; 2 Chronicles 3:1 adds Mount Moriah). The bedrock under the Dome of the Rock is traditionally identified with it; this is tradition, not an archaeological finding.