1 Chronicles 21:1

The Census of David

1 Then Satan stood against Israel and urged David to count Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:1 Meaning and Commentary

1 Chronicles 21:2

(See Gill on 1 Chronicles 21:1).

1 Chronicles 21:1 In-Context

1 Then Satan stood against Israel and urged David to count Israel.

2 So David said to Joab and to the commanders of the nation, "Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan and bring a report to me that I might know their number."

3 But Joab said, "May Yahweh add to the people a hundred times what they are! Are they not, O my lord the king, all of them the king's servants? Why does my lord seek this? Why would he bring guilt to Israel?"

4 But the word of the king prevailed over Joab. Then he went about through all Israel and came to Jerusalem.

5 And Joab gave the number of the enrollment of the people to David. And it happened [that] all Israel [was] one million one hundred thousand men drawing a sword, and in Judah [were] four hundred and seventy thousand men drawing a sword.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "[an] accuser," or "[an] adversary"