2 Samuel 24:1–10

The Census Taken

^1aNow ^bagain the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “^cGo, number Israel and Judah.”

²The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, ^afrom Dan to Beersheba, and ¹register the people, that I may know the number of the people.”

³But Joab said to the king, “^aNow may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”

⁴Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to ¹register the people of Israel.

⁵They crossed the Jordan and camped in ^aAroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad and toward ^bJazer.

⁶Then they came to Gilead and to ¹the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to ^aSidon,

⁷and came to the ^afortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ^bHivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to ^cBeersheba.

⁸So when they had gone about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹And Joab gave ^athe number of the ¹registration of the people to the king; and there were in Israel ^beight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

¹⁰Now ^aDavid’s heart ¹troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “^bI have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please ²take away the iniquity of Your servant, for ^cI have acted very foolishly.”