The Threshing Floor That Started Solomon's Temple

 Nadene Goldfoot                                      

Artist Balage Balogh has provided us a beautiful illustration of the threshing floor of Araunah on what we later know to be Mount Moriah.  Araunah was gracious in his offer to allow David to take any of his property needed — the oxen, the threshing sledge, and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. He said, “All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.”

Below;  wind used to separate the chaff from the grain of wheat.

                                                 

David’s reply is one of those memorable statements of Scripture. But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2 Samuel 24:24 ESV).

 As the temple in Jerusalem was built over a threshing floor, Victor Hurowitz observes, “This site was chosen because it was outside the city and was elevated.

 In ancient Israel threshing floors were located at places where the wind would blow freely to facilitate winnowing.” (Isaiah10:2).  The threshing floors of the Bible were outdoor stone floors, usually circular in fashion, used by farmers to process the grain of their crops. For the larger community, like watermills of the recent past, they could be gathering places bustling with commercial and communal activity. 

     Men threshing wheat by hand                               

It was already a cleared large area, a good place to begin the building of Solomon's Temple.  David (1010 to  910 BCE.  His son, Solomon by Bathsheba, then ruled from 961 to 920 BCE.

 As mentioned in 2 Chronicles 3:1, Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. This temple would play a pivotal role in the social and economic life of the Jewish people. (song) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxHtmmbAftU

Jebusites were a people in Canaan already settled in Eretz Yisrael prior to the Israelite conquest.  They lived in the hill region around Jerusalem which their people had called Jebus.  Josua defeated a Jebusite-led coalition, but Jerusalem was occupied only in the reign of David (II Sam.5:6-7).  The last Jebusite king was apparently Araunah (II Sam.24:15).  The Jebusites remained in the city under David and became tributary under Solomon.  They seem to have been assimilated into the population.

Spike morphology and threshing characteristics of (A) Bread wheat, complete spike (upper), threshed spike (middle) and rachis (highlighted red colour square) (B) Spelt complete spike (upper), threshed spike (middle) and Rachis (highlighted red colour square) and (C) Spelt hullness 1772–14308 (PI 191617) around 99% hullness (upper), Rojo (PI 191100) around 40% hullness (middle), Tomarense (PI 608792) free threshing (lower)                                       

            Today's view of Mt. Moriah of Jerusalem 

Going back further, the reason the Israelites needed this spot was for another reason, too.  "Way back in the time of Moses, God told the people of Israel that he had already chosen a place for his dwelling place in the Promised Land, long before they’d even got there:

“You are to seek only the place Adonai your God chooses from all your tribes to put His Name to dwell—there you will come.” (Deuteronomy 12:5)  Jerusalem includes Mt. Moriah, a place chosen for them. 

The location is not specified at that point, but God had decided where it would be way before the Israelites got to Canaan. With hindsight, we can see God had put his prophetic mark on his spot back in Genesis 22: it was the place where God told Abraham he was to sacrifice Isaac – Mount Moriah.  "Please take your son, your only one, whom you love--Isaac---and go to the land of Moriah;  bring him up there as an offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell you.  ...On the 3rd day, Abraham raised his eyes and perceived the place from afar...They arrived at the place of which G-d had spoken to him;  Abraham built the altar there..."

We're thankful to read that Abraham was stopped from sacrificing Isaac and told that was was the end of human sacrifice.  Abraham showed that he was at the point of giving up his most cherished, Isaac, for G-d's direction, and that was enough.  The fear of events such as earthquakes, floods, etc, was enough to cause all people of the earth into human sacrifice in those days for their own hoped for protection.  It's hard to accept that it was once an accepted act.  

Mount Moriah was a hill in Jerusalem  where Abraham prepared to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to G-d.  David had bought this land so he could build an altar here.  Later, it became the site for the Temple that Solomon was to build.  The original hill was enlarged in the course of time by embanking it.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2050/threshing-floors-of-the-bible/

https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/the-temple-was-built-on-a-threshing-floor/