21 Then a trouble-maker worked against Yisrael by encouraging David to take a census of Yisrael, 2 so David ordered Yoav and the other officials, “Go and count Yisrael from Be’er-Sheva in the south to all the way as far north as Dan, then come and tell me, so that I’ll know how many warriors I have.”

3 “My master, the king, may Yahweh multiply his people one hundred times over. Aren’t they all your servants?” Yoav diplomatically queried, “So why does my master want to do this? Why should he bring judgement on Yisrael?” 4 But the king insisted, so Yoav was forced to go and gather statistics on the entire country. Then he returned to Yerushalem 5 and reported the numbers to David. Yisrael had 1.1 million sword-wielding men, and Yehudah had 470 thousand. 6 However, Yoav had intentionally not counted the tribes of Levi and Benyamin, because he was horrified by the king’s command.