When of old the Philistines had been overcome, when their devilish audacity had been destroyed, when their champion had fallen on his face to the earth,^[1] it was from this city that there went forth a procession of jubilant souls, a harmonious choir to sing our David’s victory over tens of thousands.^[2] Here, too, it was that the angel grasped his sword, and while he laid waste the whole of the ungodly city, he marked out the temple of the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan, king of the Jebusites. Thus early was it made plain that Christ’s church would grow up not in Israel but among the Gentiles.

David had prepared by singing psalms, and the other prophets too by prophesying prepared for the Lord who was indeed the true Solomon a place that he might build a house, because they taught the hearts of their hearers by true faith, earnestly urging them to receive with faith and devotion the Son of God who was coming in the flesh. . . . It is appropriate that this place should be on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite because the church is customarily designated by the term threshing floor, as John says of the Lord: His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor.^[1] Ornan, whose name means enlightened and who was a Jebusite by origin, signifies the Gentiles by his origin, and by his name he indicates these same [Gentiles] who were to be enlightened by the Lord and transformed into children of the church to whom the apostle rightly says, Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.^[2] Jebus is the same city as Jerusalem. Now Jebus means trampled on but Jerusalem the vision of peace. As long as the Gentile Ornan reigned there it was called Jebus; but when David bought a place of burnt offering there, when Solomon built a temple to the Lord there, it was no longer called Jebus but Jerusalem, because, that is, as long as the Gentiles continued in ignorance of divine worship they were trampled on and made a mockery of by the unclean spirits, following mute idols according as they were led to do;^[3] but when they called to mind the grace of their Creator, they immediately found in themselves both the place and the name of peace, as the Lord says of them, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.^[4] Therefore, while Ornan still held sway in this city it was called Jebus, but when he sold the site of his threshing floor together with his oxen and threshing sledges to king David, it took the name Jerusalem because the Gentiles who still persisted in their obstinacy were trampled on as worthless and contemptible by the wicked spirits; but when they learned to sell all they had and offer it to the true king, they could no longer be trampled on by the demons and vices but were given a greater share of inner peace, which they possessed with their Creator.