When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David; he came out from the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground.

God sent an angel to ravage Jerusalem. As he was doing so, the Lord watched and relented from his judgment. He told the angel who was destroying, "That's enough! Stop now!" Now the Lord's angel was standing near the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

So the Lord's messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the messenger, and he and his four sons hid themselves.

David said to Ornan, "Sell me the threshing floor so I can build on it an altar for the Lord -- I'll pay top price -- so that the plague may be removed from the people."

Ornan told David, "You can have it! My master, the king, may do what he wants. Look, I am giving you the oxen for burnt sacrifices, the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for an offering. I give it all to you."

King David replied to Ornan, "No, I insist on buying it for top price. I will not offer to the Lord what belongs to you or offer a burnt sacrifice that cost me nothing.

So David bought the place from Ornan for 600 pieces of gold.

At that time, when David saw that the Lord responded to him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.