⁴Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
4. came to Jerusalem] In 2 Samuel xxiv. 4–8 the route is described and the time taken in the numbering is stated, nine months and twenty days.
⁵And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
5. they of Israel] Chronicles gives Israel as 1,100,000 and Judah as 470,000; 2 Samuel gives Israel as 800,000 and Judah as 500,000. It is difficult to correlate these figures. There are, however, reasons for thinking that the last part of the verse and Judah was 470,000, etc., may be a gloss. If so, then the 200,000 less in Chronicles (1,300,000 in Samuel; 1,100,000 in Chronicles, where Israel would as so often denote both Israel and Judah) might well be explained as an allowance for the exclusion of Levi and Benjamin (see verse 6).
that drew sword] All males over twenty years of age; compare Numbers i. 20.
⁶But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
6. Levi] In Numbers i. 49 it is ordained that Levi is not to be numbered among the children of Israel, i.e. treated as liable to military service. The Levites were, however, numbered separately: Numbers iii. 15, xxvi. 57. In 2 Samuel there is nothing to correspond with this verse, Levi and Benjamin being there reckoned in the census. Why the Chronicler excludes Benjamin as well as Levi it is not easy to see.
⁷And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
7. he smote Israel] with the plague.
⁸And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now, put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.