How to explain the discrepancy between the 50 silver shekels in 2 Sam 24:24, and the 600 gold shekels in 1 Chron 21:25?

Full Question

There seems to be a discrepancy between 2 Sam 24:24, and 1 Chron 21:25. In the former David paid 50 shekels of silver, in the latter 600 shekels of gold. Can this be explained?


Answer

Apart from the possibility of “an error of transcription ” (see Question 19—August issue), which hardly seems likely in this instance, we can offer no explana­tion of the apparent discrepancy, except upon an assumption:

  1. The assumption is that what was purchased for 50 shekels of silver, was only part of a larger messuage, i.e., the smaller amount being paid for “the threshing floor and the oxen,”(2 Sam 24:24) while the 600 shekels of gold covered “the place of the threshing floor,” i.e., the ad­jacent lands, of which the threshing floor was but a necessary part, together with the threshing floor itself, “the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing instru­ments for wood and the wheat for the meat offering.’ (1 Ch 21:25)
  2. Is the assumption reasonable?
    1. If we follow the narrative in 1 Chron. 21, from verse 25 through to the following chapter, verse I, we shall be able fully to appreciate the force of the words, “Then David said, this is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering of Israel.” He had purchased sufficient ground for the erection of the “house of the Lord,” which eventually covered quite a con­siderable area, the altar for which he had erected on the place previously occupied by the threshing floor.
    2. The purchase made by Abraham from Ephron the Hittite (Gen 23:8-20), while not in­troducing two purchase prices, to some extent illustrates the matter. Abraham wanted the cave of Machpelah, which was in the end of Ephron’s field, but the purchase finally “made sure” covered much more, viz., “the field and the cave that was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about.”