²³ David did not count those below twenty years of age, for the ^(A)Lord had promised to make Israel as many as the stars of heaven.

⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and ^(A)number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, ^(B)“So shall your offspring be.”

¹² Therefore from one man, and ^(A)him as good as dead, were born descendants ^(B)as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

² So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.” ³ But Joab said, “May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?” ⁴ But the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. ⁵ And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were ^(A)1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah ^(B)470,000 who drew the sword.

¹⁸ and on the first day of the second month, they assembled the whole congregation together, who registered themselves by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head,