1 Chronicles 27:23 BSB

1 Chronicles 27:23

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.

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under, because Jehovah had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of heaven.

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.

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Commentary

3 voices

Albert Barnes

1798–1870

Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

David’s numbering of the people was therefore a military arrangement in order to fix the amount of his standing army. To the general Oriental prejudice against numbering possessions, etc., there was added in the case of the Jews a special objection - a feeling that it would be irreverent to attempt to count what God had promised should be countless.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Joab was disgusted with it, and did it by halves; David was ashamed of it, and willing it should be forgotten, because there fell wrath for it against Israel. A good man cannot, in the reflection, please himself with that which he knows God is displeased with, cannot make use of that, nor take comfort in that, which is obtained by sin.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

The limitation to a certain age was what had probably quieted David's conscience as to the lawfulness of the measure, while its expediency was strongly pressed upon his mind by the army arrangements he had in view.

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

16 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
וְלֹא־	ve.lo'-	and not	H3808 →
נָשָׂ֤א	na.Sa'	he took	H5375 →
דָוִיד֙	da.Vid	David	H1732 →
מִסְפָּרָ֔ם	mis.pa.Ram	number their	H4557 →
לְמִבֶּ֛ן	le.mi.Ben	<to> from a son of	H1121 →
עֶשְׂרִ֥ים	'es.Rim	twenty	H6242 →
שָׁנָ֖ה	sha.Nah	year[s]	H8141 →
וּלְמָ֑טָּה	u.le.Ma.tah	and <to> downwards	H4295 →
כִּ֚י	ki	for	H3588 →
אָמַ֣ר	'a.Mar	he had said	H559 →
יְהוָ֔ה	Yah.weh	Yahweh	H3068 →
לְהַרְבּ֥וֹת	le.har.Bot	to multiply	H7235 →
אֶת־	'et-	<obj.>	H853 →
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל	Yis.ra.'El	Israel	H3478 →
כְּכוֹכְבֵ֥י	ke.chokh.Vei	like [the] stars of	H3556 →
הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃	ha.sha.Ma.yim	the heavens	H8064 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Hebrews 11:12
And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
leads to
- Genesis 22:17
  I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- Genesis 32:12
  But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
- Hosea 1:10
  Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to…
- Genesis 15:5
  And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Through
Genesis 15:5
And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
leads to
- Hebrews 11:12
  And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
- Romans 4:18
  Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
- Deuteronomy 1:10
  The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- Exodus 32:13
  Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will…

About 1 Chronicles

Cedars Are Cut Down for the Jerusalem Temple — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

1 Chronicles: the study guide →Read chapter 27 →The featured study →

PersonUnited MonarchyDavidSecond king of united Israel, shepherd-turned-monarch, ancestor of the Messiah, and traditional author of many Psalms.

Continue: 1 Chronicles 27 →

01Commentary

The record, by era

Voices on this verse

02Original language & word study

03The walk

Where the connections lead

04Related verses

06About 1 Chronicles

Where the connections lead

The record, by era

Commentary

Original language & word study

The walk

Related verses

About 1 Chronicles