1 Chronicles 21:1-5

The Lord Sends a Plague against Israel

21:1 An adversary ¹  opposed ²  Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had. ³  21:2 David told Joab and the leaders of the army, ⁴  “Go, count the number of warriors ⁵  from Beer Sheba to Dan. Then bring back a report to me so I may know how many we have.” ⁶  21:3 Joab replied, “May the Lord make his army ⁷  a hundred times larger! My master, O king, do not all of them serve my master? Why does my master want to do this? Why bring judgment on Israel?” ⁸ 

21:4 But the king’s edict stood, despite Joab’s objections. ⁹  So Joab left and traveled throughout Israel before returning to Jerusalem. ¹⁰  21:5 Joab reported to David the number of warriors. ¹¹  In all Israel there were 1,100,000 ¹²  sword-wielding soldiers; Judah alone had 470,000 sword-wielding soldiers. ¹³ 

1 Chronicles 27:1

Leaders of the Army

27:1 What follows is a list of Israelite family leaders and commanders of units of a thousand and a hundred, as well as their officers who served the king in various matters. Each division was assigned to serve for one month during the year; each consisted of 24,000 men. ¹⁴ 

1 Chronicles 27:23-24

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 ¹⁵  because of this, so the number was not recorded in the scroll ¹⁶  called The Annals of King David.

1 Chronicles 27:2

27:2 Jashobeam son of Zabdiel was in charge of the first division, which was assigned the first month. His division consisted of 24,000 men.

1 Chronicles 24:1-9

David Organizes the Priests

24:1 The divisions of Aaron’s descendants were as follows:

The sons of Aaron:

Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

24:2 Nadab and Abihu died before their father did; they had no sons. Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests.

24:3 David, Zadok (a descendant of Eleazar), and Ahimelech (a descendant of Ithamar) divided them into groups to carry out their assigned responsibilities. ¹⁷  24:4 The descendants of Eleazar had more leaders than the descendants of Ithamar, so they divided them up accordingly; the descendants of Eleazar had sixteen leaders, while the descendants of Ithamar had eight. ¹⁸  24:5 They divided them by lots, for there were officials of the holy place and officials designated by God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar. ¹⁹  24:6 The scribe Shemaiah son of Nethanel, a Levite, wrote down their names before the king, the officials, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech son of Abiathar, and the leaders of the priestly and Levite families. One family was drawn by lot from Eleazar, and then the next from Ithamar. ²⁰ 

24:7 The first lot went to Jehoiarib,

the second to Jedaiah,

24:8 the third to Harim,

the fourth to Seorim,

24:9 the fifth to Malkijah,

the sixth to Mijamin,

[21:1]  ¹ tn Or “Satan.” The Hebrew word שָׂטָן (satan) can refer to an adversary in general or Satan in particular. There is no article accompanying the term here, which suggests it should be understood generally (cf. NAB “a satan”).

[21:1]  ² tn Heb “stood against.”

[21:1]  ³ tn Heb “and incited David to count Israel.” As v. 5 indicates, David was not interested in a general census, but in determining how much military strength he had.

[21:2]  ⁴ tn Or “people.”

[21:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Go, count Israel.” See the note on “had” in v. 1.

[21:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “their number.”

[21:3]  ⁷ tn Or “people.”

[21:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “Why should it become guilt for Israel?” David’s decision betrays an underlying trust in his own strength rather than in divine provision. See also 1 Chr 27:23-24.

[21:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the word of the king was stronger than Joab.”

[21:4]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[21:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Joab gave to David the number of the numbering of the army [or “people”].”

[21:5]  ¹² tn Heb “a thousand thousands and one hundred thousand.”

[21:5]  ¹³ 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.”

[27:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the sons of Israel according to their number, heads of the fathers and the commanders of the thousands and the hundreds and their officers who served the king with respect to every matter of the divisions, [that which] comes and goes out month by month according to all the months of the year, one division [was] twenty-four thousand.”

[27:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “anger was on Israel.”

[27:24]  ¹⁶ 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”).

[24:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for their assignment in their service.”

[24:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And the sons of Eleazar were found to be more, with respect to the heads of men, than the sons of Ithamar, and they divided them. To the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen heads, according to the house of the fathers; and to the sons of Ithamar there were eight, according to the house of their fathers.”

[24:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and they divided them by lots, these with these, for the officials of the holy place and the officials of God were from the sons of Eleazar and among the sons of Ithamar.”

[24:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “one house of a father was drawn by lot for Eleazar, and one [this assumes an emendation of אָחֻז (’akhuz) to אֶחָד (’ekhad, “one”)] was drawn by lot for Ithamar.”