1 Chronicles 21:1-6
1599 Geneva Bible
21 1 David causeth the people to be numbered, 14 and there dieth seventy thousand men of the pestilence.
1 And [a]Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
2 Therefore David said to Joab, and to the rulers of the people, Go, and number Israel from [b]Beersheba even to Dan, and bring it to me, that I may know the number of them.
3 And Joab answered, The Lord increased his people an hundred times so many as they be, O my lord the king: are they not all my lord’s servants? wherefore doeth my lord require this thing? why should he be a cause of [c]trespass to Israel?
4 Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. And Joab departed and went through all Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
5 And Joab gave the number and sum of the people unto David: and all Israel were [d]eleven hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was [e]four hundred and seventy thousand men that drew sword.
6 But the Levites and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the King’s word was abominable to Joab.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Chronicles 21:1 He tempted David, in setting before his eyes his excellency and glory, his power and victories, read 2 Sam. 24:1.
- 1 Chronicles 21:2 That is, from South to North.
- 1 Chronicles 21:3 It was a thing indifferent and usual to number the people, but because he did it of an ambitious mind, as though his strength stood in his people, God punished him.
- 1 Chronicles 21:5 Joab partly for grief, and partly through negligence, gathered not the whole sum as it is here declared.
- 1 Chronicles 21:5 In Samuel is mention of thirty thousand more, which was either by joining to them some of the Benjamites which were mixed with Judah, or as the Hebrews write, here the chief and princes are left out.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
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