1. The Lord was angry with Israel again. He caused David to turn against the Israelites. He told David, “Go count the people of Israel and Judah.”
2. King David said to Joab, the captain of the army, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people. Then I will know how many people there are.”
3. But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God give you 100 times as many people, no matter how many there are! And may your eyes see this thing happen. But why do you want to do this?”
4. King David strongly commanded Joab and the other captains of the army to count the people. So they went out from the king to count the people of Israel.
5. After they crossed over the Jordan River, they made their camp in Aroer on the right side of the city. (The city is in the middle of the valley of Gad, on the way to Jazer.)
6. Then they went east to Gilead, all the way to Tahtim Hodshi. Then they went north to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon.
7. They went to the fort of Tyre. They went to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites. Then they went south to Beersheba in the southern part of Judah.
8. It took them nine months and 20 days for them to go through the country. After nine months and 20 days 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.