ARAUNAH:
A Jebusite whose threshing-floor in Jerusalem was pointed out to David by the prophet Gad as a fitting place for the erection of an altar of burnt offering to Jehovah after the great plague had been stayed, since it was there that the destroying angel was standing when the pestilence was checked (II Sam. xxiv. 16 et seq.; I Chron. xxi. 15 et seq.). David then went to Araunah, and for fifty pieces of silver bought the property and erected the altar. It is remarkable that Chronicles give the form Ornan for the Jebusite's name. A conjecture by Cheyne, founded on the slight emendation of ר to ד, makes the true form of the name to be Adonijah. According to I Chron. xxi. 31, Hebr.; xxii. 1, A. V., the threshing-floor must have been Mt. Moriah.
