1 Chronicles 21:25

(25) So David gave to Oman for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.—Literally, shekels of gold—a weight of six hundred. Samuel has, “And David purchased the threshingfloor and the oxen for silver, fifty shekels.” The two estimates are obviously discordant. We have no means of calculating what would have been a fair price, for we know neither the extent of the purchase nor the value of the sums mentioned. But comparing Genesis 23:16, where four hundred shekels of silver are paid for the field and cave of Machpelah, fifty shekels of silver would seem to be too little. On the other hand, six hundred shekels of gold appears to be far too high a price for the threshingfloor. Perhaps for “gold” we should read “silver.” It has, indeed, been suggested that “the authors were writing of two different things,” and that Samuel assigns only the price of the threshingfloor and oxen; whereas the chronicler, when he speaks of “the place,” means the entire Mount of the Temple (Moriah), on which the floor was situate. But a comparison of the two narratives seems to identify the things purchased—“the place” (1 Chronicles 21:25) is “the place of the threshingfloor” (1 Chronicles 21:22); and in both cases Samuel has “the threshingfloor.” Tradition may have varied on the subject; and as “there is no positive mention of the use of gold money among the Hebrews” apart from this passage (Madden), ours is probably the later form of the story. However this may be, the chronicler has doubtless preserved for us what he found in his original. It is interesting to compare with this sale some of those the records of which are preserved in the Babylonian Contract Tablets. One of these relates how Dân-sum-iddin sold a house and grounds in Borsippa for eleven and a-half minæ of silver, i.e., 690 shekels. This was in the second year of Nabonidus the last king of Babylon.