David buys threshing floors

Q. Why does it say in 2 Sam 24.18 that David bought Araunah the Jebusites threshing floor for 50 shelels and in 1Chr 21.25 he bought the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite for 600 shekels. Is this a contradiction?

A. It is not a contradiction, these were two seperate places. Araunah's floor was on Mt Moriah and Ornan's was most likely on Mt of Olives, called the "miphkad altar." Miphkad means "withheld" and it was something withheld or outside of the Temple. What many do not realize is that there were 2 altars. They were both seen as part of the Temple. On the Mt of Olives, certain offerings were cremated there, ashes were taken there and so on. There was a hole that measured 9x12 ft deep and 12-15 ft wide. It was a "depressed" altar if you will. The ashes in the hole were blown from west to east because of the winds off the Mediteranean Sea. Thus, Psa. 103.12 was fulfilled when it says that "as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." These threshing floors were no located on the top of the mountain, but down from the top. The threshers wanted to keep the wheat, so they did not want everything to blow away so they were down on the east side of the mountain, just down from the top.

They would throw the wheat and the chaff up in the air, catching the west wind at the top, blowing the chaff but the wheat fell down on the floor. Now, just a word about the Great Altar in the Temple. If anyone has seen pictures of it you will know what I mean, if you haven't, look on the Internet under Temple Altar to get an idea of what I'm saying. It was very high and wide and had 3 fires on it. It was made from uncut stones taken from a river bed, beneath the surface to make sure that no iron object had scraped the surface of the rock. It was lifted from the riverbed with wooden paddles. This area is known as the Beit Kerem valley, west of Jerusalem and tradition says it was the home of John the Baptist.

These stones were taken for the altar. During the Maccabean revolt, the altar was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes and when the Temple was rededicated to G-d, there was no ritual to purify the altar so they had to build a new one. What about the old stones? You could not just throw them away because they were once dedicated to G-d. They decided to store them in a room in the northwest chamber of the inner court or "azarah" called the Beit ha Moked until Elijah the prophet came to tell them what to do. They are probably still up on the Temple Mount today. We are commanded to study the Temple in the scriptures and it reveals much about the Messiah.