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?”