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1 Chronicles 27 · a question people ask

How does this chapter's census fit with chapter 21's?

In the text

This chapter says, "Joab the son of Zeruiah began to take a census, but didn’t finish; and wrath came on Israel for this. The number wasn’t put into the account in the chronicles of King David" (27:24). Chapter 21 told the census at length. There, "Joab gave the sum of the census of the people to David" (1 Chronicles 21:5), and "he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab" (1 Chronicles 21:6). There too, "God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel" (1 Chronicles 21:7). Chapter 27 doesn't join its words to chapter 21's, and these notes don't either: the verses are set side by side, as the book has them. What was wrong with the count is asked in chapter 21's honest question, which gives the main ways Christians read it; one of them rests on this chapter's 27:23-24.

The verses

“Joab the son of Zeruiah began to take a census, but didn’t finish; and wrath came on Israel for this. The number wasn’t put into the account in the chronicles of King David.”
1 Chronicles 27:24 · World English Bible
“Joab gave 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
“But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.”
1 Chronicles 21:6 · World English Bible
“God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.”
1 Chronicles 21:7 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Chronicles 27

1 Chronicles 27: Like the stars of the sky

David didn't number those twenty years old and under "because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky" (27:23): in Hebrew, the same verb and the same words for the stars of the sky as the LORD's promise to Abraham and to Isaac (Genesis 22:17, 26:4). And the count Joab began, he "didn’t finish" (27:24).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions