שמואל ב, פרק כ״ד, פסוק כ״ב

When a king makes a personal request, it can be difficult to tell if the response is driven by genuine generosity or mere obligation. Araunah's reaction to King David's request for land reveals a deep, willing spirit to provide for worship. He goes far beyond simply handing over the requested threshing floor for an altar. Instead, he offers to supply everything needed for the sacrifice from his own property, inviting the king to take whatever he sees fit [מצודת דוד, שטיינזלץ, אברבנאל]. Araunah presents the cattle already present at the site to be used as the burnt offering.

To fuel the fire for the altar, Araunah offers his own agricultural equipment. This includes heavy wooden threshing sledges, which were either carved with deep grooves [רש״י] or fitted with sharp stones on the bottom [מצודת ציון] and dragged over stalks to cut them into animal feed. He also offers the wooden yokes and tools used to plow and guide the cattle, such as goads [רלב״ג, מצודת דוד]. Expanding on this generosity, other accounts note that Araunah even provided the wheat from the threshing floor to be used as a grain offering [רד״ק, רלב״ג, אברבנאל].

A deeper psychological motive drives this extensive list of donations. King David was known for his piety and wanted to offer a proper sacrifice to God. Araunah worried that the king might refuse to accept the land for free, suspecting that the offer was made out of social pressure or awkwardness simply because the monarch had arrived in person. By proactively offering the cattle, the threshing tools, and the wood, Araunah proved the purity of his intentions. This overwhelming generosity, going far beyond what David initially requested, was carefully designed to assure the king that the gift was given with a joyful, willing heart, rather than out of forced respect for the crown [חומת אנך].