Discovery Box1 Chronicles 21:2-6 
Context21:2 David told Joab and the leaders of the army, 1 “Go, count the number of warriors 2 from Beer Sheba to Dan. Then bring back a report to me so I may know how many we have.” 3 21:3 Joab replied, “May the Lord make his army 4 a hundred times larger! My master, O king, do not all of them serve my master? Why does my master want to do this? Why bring judgment on Israel?” 5
21:4 But the king’s edict stood, despite Joab’s objections. 6 So Joab left and traveled throughout Israel before returning to Jerusalem. 7 21:5 Joab reported to David the number of warriors. 8 In all Israel there were 1,100,000 9 sword-wielding soldiers; Judah alone had 470,000 sword-wielding soldiers. 10 21:6 Now Joab 11 did not number Levi and Benjamin, for the king’s edict disgusted him.
1 tn Or “people.”
2 tn Heb “Go, count Israel.” See the note on “had” in v. 1.
3 tn Heb “their number.”
4 tn Or “people.”
5 tn Heb “Why should it become guilt for Israel?” David’s decision betrays an underlying trust in his own strength rather than in divine provision. See also 1 Chr 27:23-24.
6 tn Heb “and the word of the king was stronger than Joab.”
7 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
8 tn Heb “and Joab gave to David the number of the numbering of the army [or “people”].”
9 tn Heb “a thousand thousands and one hundred thousand.”
10 tc The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:9 has variant figures: “In Israel there were eight hundred thousand sword-wielding warriors, and in Judah there were five hundred thousands soldiers.”
11 tn Heb “he”; the proper name (“Joab”) has been substituted for the pronoun here for stylistic reasons; the proper name occurs at the end of the verse in the Hebrew text, where it has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.
