| II Samuel 24:24
| And the king answered him, and said: Nay, but I will buy it of thee, at a price, and I will not offer to the Lord my God holocausts, free-cost. So David bought the floor, and the oxen, for fifty sicles of silver:
| Free-cost, or given gratis. This shews that subjects have property, otherwise they could only yield what was due to the king, as his own. (Worthington) --- Silver. Septuagint, "for the silver of fifty sicles." (Haydock) --- Bochart explains for the money of 50 sicles of gold, which make 600 sicles of silver. Gold was formerly as twelve to one, compared with silver. (Plato in Hipparcho.) --- But the best method of reconciling this passage with 1 Paralipomenon is to say, that David gave the 50 sicles for the oxen and floor, and afterwards purchased the whole piece of ground for 600 (Calmet) sicles of gold, (or 902l. 5s. sterling.; Haydock) being informed that the temple was to be erected there, (Calmet) where Isaac had formerly been brought to be sacrificed. (Menochius) --- We might also make a colon, or pause, at floor, as if its price were specified elsewhere, and the fifty sicles were given for the oxen. (Du Hamel; Menochius) --- The sum amounts to only about 1l. 14s. (Haydock)
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