1. The Lord was angry with Israel again. He caused David to turn against the Israelites. David said, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.”
2. King David spoke to Joab, the commander of the army. David said, “Go through all the tribes of Israel. Go from Dan to Beersheba and count the people. Then I will know how many there are.”
3. But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God give you 100 times more people. And may you live to see this happen. But why do you want to do this?”
4. But the king very strongly commanded Joab and the commanders of the army. So they left the king to count the people of Israel.
5. After crossing the Jordan River, they camped near Aroer. They camped on the south side of the city in the ravine. They went through Gad and on to Jazer.
6. Then they went to Gilead and the land of Tahtim Hodshi. Next they went to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon.
7. They went to the strong, walled city of Tyre. They also went to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went to southern Judah, to Beersheba.
8. After 9 months and 20 days, they had gone through all the land. Then they came back to Jerusalem.
9. Joab gave the list of the people to the king. There were 800,000 men in Israel who could use the sword. And there were 500,000 men in Judah.