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The king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him: “Please go about through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people that I may know the number of the people.” Then Joab said to the king, “May Yahweh your God increase the people a hundred times what they are[a] as the eyes of my lord the king are seeing. But my lord the king, why does he desire this thing?” But the word of the king prevailed over Joab and over the commanders of the army, so Joab and the commanders of the army went out from before the king to count the people of Israel.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 24:3 Literally “as them and as them”

So the king said to Joab(A) and the army commanders[a] with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba(B) and enroll(C) the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

But Joab(D) replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over,(E) and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”

The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 24:2 Septuagint (see also verse 4 and 1 Chron. 21:2); Hebrew Joab the army commander