1 Chronicles 21:1-9

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  21:6 Now Joab ¹⁴  did not number Levi and Benjamin, for the king’s edict disgusted him. 21:7 God was also offended by it, ¹⁵  so he attacked Israel.

21:8 David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this! Now, please remove the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” 21:9 The Lord told Gad, David’s prophet, ¹⁶ 

[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.”

[21:6]  ¹⁴ 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.

[21:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “There was displeasure in the eyes of God concerning this thing.”

[21:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “seer.”