1. Once again the anger of the lord burned against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the lord told him.
2. So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Take a census of all the tribes of Israel—from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south—so I may know how many people there are.”
3. But Joab replied to the king, “May the lord your God let you live to see a hundred times as many people as there are now! But why, my lord the king, do you want to do this?”
4. But the king insisted that they take the census, so Joab and the commanders of the army went out to count the people of Israel.