And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded supplications for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
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Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
Therefore, the king himself offered blessed David the threshing floor and oxen for a burnt offering, but King David refused to accept them without first paying a price. This, too, was fulfilled at the coming of our Lord and Savior, for he refused to take the hearts of the Gentiles for himself without first giving his precious blood for them. What, then, did he give? “Fifty shekels of silver,” it says. In the number fifty the grace of the Holy Spirit is understood and the remission of sins is designated. Indeed, on the fiftieth day the Holy Spirit was sent to the apostles, and in the Old Testament the fiftieth year was dedicated to forgiveness and pardon. That David, to be sure, gave silver; our David, whose type the other prefigured, shed his precious blood. Thus, in order to buy the pagan king’s threshing floor David offered fifty shekels; in order to build an altar to himself on the threshing floor of the Gentiles Christ, the true David, gave the grace of the Holy Spirit and forgiven...
