Araunah is the name of a guy who owned a threshing floor (where they sift through their grains and all) on top of Mount Moriah (same place where Abraham sacrificed Isaac in Genesis). Araunah is also the name of the altar built by King David there.
The significance of our group's name is found in this verse:
24 But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
More details when the permanent website is up. For now, records of Araunah are found in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21.
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2 Samuel 24:18-25
David Builds an Altar
18 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, "Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." 19 So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad.20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. 21 Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?"
"To buy your threshing floor," David answered, "so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped."
22 Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. 23 O king, Araunah gives all this to the king." Araunah also said to him, "May the LORD your God accept you."
24 But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels [c] of silver for them. 25 David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. [d] Then the LORD answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
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- Araunah!
