Therefore David said to Joab, and to the rulers of the people, Go, and number Israel from [a]Beersheba even to Dan, and bring it to me, that I may know the number of them.

And Joab answered, The Lord increased his people an hundred times so many as they be, O my lord the king: are they not all my lord’s servants? wherefore doeth my lord require this thing? why should he be a cause of [b]trespass to Israel?

Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. And Joab departed and went through all Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Chronicles 21:2 That is, from South to North.
  2. 1 Chronicles 21:3 It was a thing indifferent and usual to number the people, but because he did it of an ambitious mind, as though his strength stood in his people, God punished him.

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