(23) Take it to thee.--Comp. Genesis 23:11.

Let my lord the king do.--Samuel, "offer." In the Hebrew only one letter is different; and the word "do" may have the meaning "offer," as in Greek (Comp. Exodus 29:38.)

I give thee.--Not in Samuel; an exegetical addition.

For burnt offerings.--For the burnt offerings. Samuel has the singular.

The threshing instruments, or drags. 1Chronicles 20:3 a different word. See Isaiah 41:15 and 2Samuel 24:22, the only other places where this word (moraq) occurs. Samuel adds, "And the instruments (yokes) of the oxen."

For wood.--For the wood (Genesis 22:7).

And the wheat for the meat offering.--Not in Samuel, but probably part of the oldest text of this narrative.

I give it all.--The whole I have given. Samuel (Heb.), "The whole hath Araunah given, O king to the king." The rest of 2Samuel 24:23 is here omitted; "And Araunah said unto the king, The Lord thy God accept thee."

Verse 23. - Ornan's offer to David of the threshing-floor and all its belongings, as a gift, reminds of Ephron's offer to Abraham (Genesis 23:11). Ornan's prompt offer of gift was, perhaps, all the prompter from the desire to render every assistance to the staying of the plague. For burnt offerings ... for the meat offering. The whole code of regulations for offerings - sin offering, trespass offering, peace offering, burnt offering, meat and drink offering - is to be found in Leviticus 1-7. As regards the burnt offering, see Leviticus 1; Leviticus 6:8-13. It was called עֹלָה, from its "ascending" accepted to heaven, or else from its being put up or raised up (Hiph. conjugation) on the altar; and sometimes כָּלִיל, from being "wholly" consumed. The sin and trespass offerings were for special sins, but this was of a more comprehensive kind and of much greater dignity, as standing for the "purging of the conscience." The entire consuming of the sacrifice signified the unqualified self-surrender of him who brought the sacrifice. It was a voluntary offering, the offerer laid his hand on the head of the victim, and the blood of the victim was sprinkled round about the altar. The meat offering (מִנְחָה) is fully described in Leviticus it.; Leviticus 6:14-23. It was an offering without blood, and therefore was an accompaniment of an offering of blood. It was composed of flour or cakes, prepared with salt, oil, and frank-incense - the salt emblematic of non-decay; the oil, of spiritual grace; and the frankincense, of acceptable fragrance. A portion of this offering was to be burnt, and a portion eaten by the priests in the court, unless it was for a priest himself, when all must be burnt. Meantime a drink offering of wine was, in fact, a part of the meat offering itself (Exodus 29:40, 41; Leviticus 23:13; Numbers 15:4-7, 9, 10). The material of the meat offering might be the green or fresh-gathered ears of corn. The Septuagint translates δῶρον; Luther, speis-opfer; and it need scarcely be said that our Authorized Version meat offering exhibits only the generic employment of the word "meat" for food.

21:1-30 David's numbering the people. - No mention is made in this book of David's sin in the matter of Uriah, neither of the troubles that followed it: they had no needful connexion with the subjects here noted. But David's sin, in numbering the people, is related: in the atonement made for that sin, there was notice of the place on which the temple should be built. The command to David to build an altar, was a blessed token of reconciliation. God testified his acceptance of David's offerings on this altar. Thus Christ was made sin, and a curse for us; it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him, God might be to us, not a consuming Fire, but a reconciled God. It is good to continue attendance on those ordinances in which we have experienced the tokens of God's presence, and have found that he is with us of a truth. Here God graciously met me, therefore I will still expect to meet him.See Chapter Introduction