⁴ But the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem.

²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, ^(A)“We must obey God rather than men.

¹⁸ But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

⁴ For the word of the king is supreme, and ^(A)who may say to him, “What are you doing?”

³ But Joab said to the king, ^(A)“May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” ⁴ But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and began from ^(B)Aroer,^[a] and from the city that is in the middle of the ^(C)valley, toward Gad and on to ^(D)Jazer. ⁶ Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites;^[b] and they came to Dan, and from Dan^[c] they went around to ^(E)Sidon, ⁷ and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ^(F)Hivites and ^(G)Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba. ⁸ So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

¹⁷ But the midwives ^(A)feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.