David Takes a Census of Israel^(A)

24 Later, God’s anger blazed forth against Israel, so he incited David to move against them by telling him, “Go take a census of Israel and Judah.”

² So the king ordered Joab, commander of the special forces, who was with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and take a census of the people so I can be made aware of the total number.”

³ But Joab replied, “May the Lord your God increase the population of the people a hundredfold while your majesty the king is still alive to see it happen! But why does your majesty the king want to do this?”

⁴ But the king’s order overruled Joab and the commanders of the special forces, so Joab and the commanders of the special forces left David’s presence to take a census of the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan River,^[a] encamped at Aroer south of the town that is located in the river valley, proceeding through Gad and then on toward Jazer. ⁶ They went on to Gilead and the territory of Tahtim-hodshi, then on toward Dan. From Dan they went around to Sidon ⁷ and arrived at the fortified city of Tyre and all of the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites.

Eventually they proceeded to Beer-sheba in the Judean Negev.^{[b] 8} After they had traveled throughout the entire land, they returned to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days. ⁹ Joab reported the total number of men to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 men trained for war.^[c] In Judah there were 500,000.

Discipline for David’s Sin^(B)

¹⁰ Later, David’s conscience bothered^[d] him after he had numbered the army,^[e] so David told the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by what I did. But now I am asking you, please remove the guilt of your servant, since I have acted very foolishly.”