ORNAN (illustration 'Ornân'; in II Sam. 24, 16-25 Vulg. Areuna, Heb. 'Áravnân). — A name of Hittite or Hurrian origin, borne by a Jebusite inhabitant of Jerusalem in the time of David, owner of a threshing floor on the highest point of Mount Moriah. During the pestilence sent as punishment for the census ordered by David, the destroying angel was seen by the king near this threshing floor. Ornan immediately sold it to David for fifty shekels (a different, though unlikely, sum in the Paralipomena), upon which David built an altar there and offered sacrifices; and the plague ceased (II Sam. 24, 16-25; I Chron. 21, 15-28). On the site of that altar Solomon later built the Temple.