Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| king’s | הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ ha.Me.lekh | H4428 | a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| word | דְּבַר de.var- | H1697 | a word · noun, common masculine singular construct |
| prevailed | וַיֶּחֱזַ֤ק vai.ye.che.Zak | H2388 | to fasten upon · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| Joab | יוֹאָ֔ב yo.'Av | H3097 | Joab · proper noun, a man's name |
| captains | שָׂרֵ֣י sa.Rei | H8269 | a head person (of any rank or class) · noun, common masculine plural construct |
| host | הֶחָ֑יִל he.Cha.yil | H2428 | probably a force · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| Joab | יוֹאָ֜ב yo.'Av | H3097 | Joab · proper noun, a man's name |
| captains | וְשָׂרֵ֤י ve.sa.Rei | H8269 | a head person (of any rank or class) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct |
| host | הַחַ֙יִל֙ ha.Cha.yil | H2428 | probably a force · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| out | וַיֵּצֵ֨א vai.ye.Tze' | H3318 | to go (causatively · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| presence | לִפְנֵ֣י lif.Nei | H6440 | the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct |
| king | הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ ha.Me.lekh | H4428 | a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| number | לִפְקֹ֥ד lif.Kod | H6485 | to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct |
| people | הָעָ֖ם ha.'Am | H5971 | a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| Israel | יִשְׂרָאֵֽל Yis.ra.'El | H3478 | Jisrael · proper noun, a place name |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Joab said unto the king - This very bad man saw that the measure now recommended by the king was a wrong one, and might be ruinous to the people, and therefore he remonstrates against it in a very sensible speech; but the king was infatuated, and would hear no reason.
Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host,.... Who it seems were of the same mind with Joab, and were against numbering the people, yet their arguments and remonstrances were of no avail with the king; he was determined it should be done, and laid his commands upon them to do it, which they were obliged to comply with: and Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel; seeing him resolute and determined, they submitted, took his orders, and set out to execute them.
"Again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel; and He moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah." לחרות ... ויּסף points back to the manifestation of the wrath of God, which Israel had experienced in the three years' famine (2 Samuel 21). Just as that plague had burst upon the land on account of the guilt which rested upon the people, so the kindling of the wrath of God against Israel a second time also presupposes guilt on the part of the nation; and as this is not expressly pointed out, we may seek for it generally in the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba against the divinely established government of David. The subject to "moved" is Jehovah, and the words "again…
Read the whole note in the consolewhy . . . do you want to do this? Joab either realized that such a move would be unpopular among the people, or he believed that it was wrong before God.
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Their [current] number. [Yoav meant with] the word כׇּהֵם to convey that their amount should double and the second word וְכָהֵם, to convey a second doubling to have now a total of four times [the original population] and then to again double the [new] total for one hundred times.1For a total of two hundred times the current population. It follows that Yoav's blessing was more then Moshe's who said, "One thousand times you [current] number".2Devorim 1:11. Furthermore, Moshe's blessing was only [to take effect] a long time [into the future] but Yoav's was intended [to take effect] immediately as it says [here], "[With] my master, the king's eyes [being able to] see it."
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
