2Sa 24:1-9 | NASB2020 | STEP | Now the anger of the Lord burned against Israel again , and He incited David against them to say , “ Go , count Israel and Judah .”

2 Samuel 24:1-9

The Census Taken

1 ^aNow ^bthe anger of the Lord burned against Israel again, and He incited David against them to say, “ ^cGo, count Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab the commander of the army, who was with him, “Roam about now through all the tribes of Israel, ^dfrom Dan to Beersheba, and conduct a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” 3 But Joab said to the king, “ ^eMay the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king can still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” 4 Nevertheless, the king’s order prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army left the presence of the king to conduct a census of the people of Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan and camped in ^fAroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the Valley of Gad and toward ^gJazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead and to ^{▼▼Another reading is Kadesh in the land of the Hittite}the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to ⁱSidon, 7 then they came to the ^jfortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ^kHivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to ^lBeersheba. 8 So when they had roamed about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave ^mthe number of the census of the people to the king: in Israel there were ⁿeight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.