📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 21:5
What does 1 Chronicles 21:5 mean?
"Joab gave up the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword."
— 1 Chronicles 21:5 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are.”
Joab said, “May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”
Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, then came to Jerusalem.
Joab gave up the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword.
But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.
David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
Explanation
This verse reports the final count from a military census that King David ordered near the end of his reign. In plain terms, it tells us that Joab, David's army commander, tallied the fighting-age men across the kingdom and reported the results to the king: 1,100,000 swordsmen from the rest of Israel and 470,000 from the tribe of Judah alone. These numbers represent the pool of men capable of bearing arms, essentially a measure of the nation's military strength.
The broader context matters a great deal here. First Chronicles 21 opens with the statement that "Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel" (v. 1). David, despite Joab's strong objection that
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