The Story of Two Oxen
2
Samuel
24:16-25
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Once,
a long time ago, two oxen lived in the land of Israel. Other oxen lived in
that land, too; but these gentle animals of our story belonged to a man
named Araunah. They pulled his heavy loads, plowed the ground in his
fields, and threshed his grain. Araunah
did not live very far from the palace home of King David. On a hilltop
near by he had a place called a threshing floor. Here he hauled his grain
from the fields and threshed out the seeds which grew on the stalks. He
did not use a large machine to do this work. First he scattered the stalks
about on the floor. Then he drove the two oxen back and forth, and round
and round on the stalks. In their tramping the oxen crushed the seeds out
of the stalks. One
day while Araunah was working at the threshing floor a visitor came to
talk with him. This visitor was King David. He asked to buy the threshing
floor, for he wanted to build an altar on that hilltop to worship God.
Araunah replied, "I will let you have this place, and I will give
these two oxen to you also." "No," said the King, "you
must take money for them."
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