The year is roughly 970 b.c. King David climbs an exposed limestone ridge above Jerusalem to build a stone altar. The air hangs heavy with the stench of disease. Hot winds scour the bare rock. The populace waits behind locked doors in terror. A plague sweeps through the city streets. Exhausted laborers haul heavy timber and unhewn stone up the steep incline. The sharp sting of fear slowly gives way to the deep relief of a halted pestilence.
The king orders a military census of his armed fighting men. A devastating epidemic strikes the nation in direct response. David rushes to the highest elevation to intercede for his people. He meets Araunah the Jebusite on a flat agricultural plot. The king insists on buying the land and the working oxen. The farmer offers the property for free. David refuses the gift. He pays fifty shekels of silver for the site and the animals. This weight equals roughly twenty ounces of raw silver. It represents a staggering windfall for an ordinary agricultural worker. David dismantles the heavy wooden yokes to fuel the sacrificial fire.
A threshing floor requires hard bedrock and constant wind. Farmers drag heavy sledges over harvested wheat stalks to break the outer husks. The wind blows away the lighter material. The heavy grain falls straight down to the stone. The king recognizes the harsh mechanics of this ground. A true sacrifice demands an actual loss of property or labor. David refuses to offer the Lord a sacrifice that carries no personal cost.
A man cannot purchase peace with stolen goods or borrowed labor.
The blood of slaughtered oxen soaked deep into the dry limestone of Mount Moriah. This windblown agricultural plot became the permanent bedrock foundation for a massive stone temple.