Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Bruce,

Perhaps I was a little too blasé about redaction. Sometimes one must be
concerned about it. If he does studies in the MT of Jeremiah versus the LXX
of Jeremiah, the difference in length between the two versions raises
inescapable redactional questions.

Back to the subject of the the price David paid for Araunah's property (2
Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21), please let me add that David originally bought
the Araunah's threshing floor for the purpose of building an altar, at the
word of the prophet Gad (2 Sam 24:18). A threshing floor is not that big a
piece of property, about the right size for an altar. With the oxen and
threshing sledges included, fifty shekels of silver might be a suitable
price. But David eventually built the temple on this site:

2Chr. 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in
mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place
that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.

The six hundred shekels of gold mentioned in 1 Chron 21:25 probably refers
to the cost of the larger site needed for the construction of the temple.
David probably paid this price, since he made all sorts of provisions for
the building of the temple (1 Chronicles 28). David drew up plans for the
temple:

1 Chron 28:11: Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of
the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms
and the place of atonement. He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit
had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the
surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and for the
treasuries for the dedicated things.

It seems likely that David would have secured a site before drawing up plans.

I Chronicles 29 describes all the wealth that David stored up for the
construction of the temple. If David gave all these precious materials, it
seems logical that he would give the property itself.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard
                                Dallas, TX