military forces and is used this way in the Authorized Version of 1 Samuel 4:3, 4, 17. But the census that David ordered wasn’t to collect the annual temple tax; it was a military census to see how big his army was, as verse 9 makes clear. But there had been military censuses in Israel in the past and the Lord hadn’t judged the nation (Num. 1 and 26). What was there about this census that was wrong? Joab and his captains were against the project (v. 4) and Joab’s speech in verse 3 suggests that David’s