⁸ Your servant is here among the people you have chosen,^(A) a great people, too numerous to count or number.^(B)

⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars^(A)—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring^[a] be.”^(B)

² So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count^(A) the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”

¹⁷ I will surely bless you^(A) and make your descendants^(B) as numerous as the stars in the sky^(C) and as the sand on the seashore.^(D) Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,^(E)

¹⁶ I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.^(A)

²³ David did not take the number of the men twenty years old or less,^(A) because the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars^(B) in the sky. ²⁴ Joab son of Zeruiah began to count the men but did not finish. God’s wrath came on Israel on account of this numbering,^(C) and the number was not entered in the book^[a] of the annals of King David.

⁵ Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel^(A) there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.

⁶ But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him.

⁶ For you are a people holy^(A) to the Lord your God.^(B) The Lord your God has chosen^(C) you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.^(D)

⁷ The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous^(E) than other peoples, for you were the fewest^(F) of all peoples.^{(G) 8} But it was because the Lord loved^(H) you and kept the oath he swore^(I) to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand^(J) and redeemed^(K) you from the land of slavery,^(L) from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.