²³ But David did not take the number of those twenty years old and under, because ^(A)the Lord had said He would multiply Israel like the ^(B)stars of the heavens.

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

¹² Therefore from one man, and him as good as ^(A)dead, were born as many as the ^(B)stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

² So David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, “Go, number Israel from Beersheba to Dan, ^(A)and bring the number of them to me that I may know it.”

³ And Joab answered, “May the Lord make His people a hundred times more than they are. But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt in Israel?”

⁴ Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem. ⁵ Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah had four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.

¹⁸ and they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they recited their ^(A)ancestry by families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and above, each one individually.