Araunah

Araunah (Hebrew: אֲרַוְנָה‎ ʾǍrawnā) was a Jebusite mentioned in the Second Book of Samuel, who owned the threshing floor on Mount Moriah which David purchased and used as the site for assembling an altar to God.

In the version of the narrative presented by the Book of Chronicles, it was Satan who incited David to make the census.

According to the Books of Samuel, David paid 50 silver shekels for the threshing floor and the oxen (2 Samuel 24:24); Chronicles states that David paid 600 gold shekels for the entire site where the threshing floor was located (1 Chronicles 21:25).

Biblical scholar H. P. Mathys notes that the purchase of threshing floor "is modelled on Abraham's purchase of Machpelah's cave (Genesis 23), even repeating specific details, the most important of which is David's insistence on paying the full price (an expression used only in Genesis 23:9 and in 1 Chronicles 21:22,24).

[citation needed] Other scholars believe that a more mundane motive is the reason – that the knowledge gained from a census would enable David to impose more accurate taxes and levies, and thus the census would be unpopular with the people who were at risk of higher taxes or levies.