27:23 David did not count the males twenty years old and under, for the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky. 27:24 Joab son of Zeruiah started to count the men but did not finish. God was angry with Israel 5 because of this, so the number was not recorded in the scroll 6 called The Annals of King David.
1 tn Heb “and Joab gave to David the number of the numbering of the army [or “people”].”
2 tn Heb “a thousand thousands and one hundred thousand.”
3 tc The parallel text in 2 Sam 24:9 has variant figures: “In Israel there were eight hundred thousand sword-wielding warriors, and in Judah there were five hundred thousands soldiers.”
4 tn Heb “he”; the proper name (“Joab”) has been substituted for the pronoun here for stylistic reasons; the proper name occurs at the end of the verse in the Hebrew text, where it has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation.
5 tn Heb “anger was on Israel.”
6 tc The Hebrew text has “in the number,” but מִסְפַּר (mispar) is probably dittographic – note that the same word appears immediately before this. The form should be emended to בְּסֵפֶר (bÿsefar, “in the scroll”).