What Does 2 Samuel 24:24 Mean in the King James?
And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The offering rises only after David refuses to let its cost fall on someone else.
THE MEANING
This verse places devotion beside an actual exchange: David refuses Araunah’s gift because an offering that costs him nothing would leave the cost with another man. The silver makes the cost countable, while the burnt offering’s name carries the image of what rises.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that something counts as your sacrifice when another person absorbs its whole cost.
THE ROOT
קָנֹה אֶקְנֶה
qānōh ʾeqneh
GROWS FROM
קנה
q-n-h
Acquire, buy, take into possession.
The verb rings twice: David says he will buy, and the verse closes by saying that he bought the threshing floor and oxen. That repeated root makes the offering’s cost an act of taking ownership before anything is given.
ALSO GROWS
qānāh: Buy, acquire.
קָנָה
This is the verb David repeats, making his refusal of a free offering concrete.
miqneh: Possession, livestock or property.
מִקְנֶה
This branch keeps the acquired goods visible: the altar’s setting and animals are property David takes into his possession.
עֹלוֹת
ʿolot
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
Go up, rise, ascend.
“burnt offerings” in this verse is ʿolot. The burnt offering is an ʿolah, a ‘going-up’ offering. Its root lets the verse hold a tangible payment in David’s hand beside the image of what rises from the altar.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: Go up, ascend.
עָלָה
The verb supplies the motion inside the name of the offering.
ʿaliyah: Ascent, rising.
עֲלִיָּה
This noun makes explicit the upward movement carried by the offering’s root.
שְׁקָלִים
sheqalim
GROWS FROM
שקל
sh-q-l
Weigh, measure by weight.
The price is named in shekels, a word from the root ‘to weigh.’ Cost is not left as a vague feeling; the text gives it weight that can be counted.
ALSO GROWS
shāqal: Weigh.
שָׁקַל
The verb reveals the weighing image retained in the name of the payment.
mishqal: Weight, a measure by weight.
מִשְׁקָל
This branch clarifies why the silver expresses a measurable cost.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes giving concrete by relating it to what the giver actually holds, entrusts, or pays.
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:THE THREAD
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.The Hebrew קָנִיתִי (qānîtî, ‘I have acquired’ or ‘gotten’) comes from the same קנה (q-n-h, ‘acquire’) root as David’s repeated ‘buy.’ The shared root connects receiving life into one’s keeping with taking the threshing floor into David’s possession before he offers there.
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