But David didn’t take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because Yahweh had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky.
Parallel translations
- KJV But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under: because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens.
- BSB David did not count the men aged twenty or under, because the LORD had said that He would make Israel as numerous as the stars of the sky.
- ESV David did not count those below twenty years of age, for the LORD had promised to make Israel as many as the stars of heaven.
- NKJV But David did not take the number of those twenty years old and under, because the Lord had said He would multiply Israel like the stars of the heavens.
- NASB But David did not count those twenty years of age and under, because the Lord had said He would multiply Israel as the stars of heaven.
- NLT When David took his census, he did not count those who were younger than twenty years of age, because the Lord had promised to make the Israelites as numerous as the stars in heaven.
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David did not count those twenty and under, recalling God's promise to multiply Israel like the stars. It grounds the census in God's covenant pledge.
Overview
The Chronicler notes David's restraint in the census, leaving the youngest uncounted because the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars. This echoes God's covenant to Abraham and a trust that the nation's increase rested on divine promise, not human tally. It teaches that God's people flourish by his faithful word rather than by counting their own strength.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Gen 15:5Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So will your offspring be.”
- Num 1:18They assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they declared their ancestry by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, one by one.
- Heb 11:12Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead.
- 1 Chr 21:2–5David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are.”
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Christ at the center
The genealogies and the everlasting covenant with David trace the single thread of promise running through the generations straight to the Christ in whom the line reaches its goal.
How 1 Chronicles 27:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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