Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made,.... Or ordered to be made by the command of God, and according to his direction: and the altar of burnt offerings, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon; which was four or five miles from Jerusalem, and too far for David to go in that time of extremity; though he must have gone thither to sacrifice, had not the Lord bid him build an altar on the threshingfloor; for there was the altar of burnt offering, on which only, according to the law of Moses, sacrifices were to be offered: this high place is, in the Targum, called the sanctuary, it including, as Kimchi observes, the whole house, the tabernacle, and the altar in it; which had been here, and at Nob, fifty seven years, as the Jewish writers say (n). (n) Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Zebachim, c. 14. sect. 7.