Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

1 Chronicles 27:23

in 1 Chronicles 27

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

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

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.

⋯

This verse in 1 Chronicles 27

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

the men aged twenty or under

on 1 Chronicles 27:23-24

David left the young uncounted: “the LORD had said that He would make Israel as numerous as the stars of the sky”. The promise echoes Genesis 15:5. Verse 24 turns to the census David did take, which Joab “began to count the men but did not finish”.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

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.

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Because - And therefore to number them all both above and under twenty years old, had been both an infinite trouble and a tempting of God, or a questioning the truth of his promises.
But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

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.

The words behind it

16 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְלֹא־and not

    velo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • נָשָׂ֤אhe took

    nasa'H5375 →656 times

  • דָוִיד֙David

    davidH1732 →999 times

  • מִסְפָּרָ֔םnumber their

    misparamH4557 →134 times

  • לְמִבֶּ֛ן<to> from a son of

    lemibenH1121 →4930 times

  • עֶשְׂרִ֥יםtwenty

    ʾesrimH6242 →315 times

  • שָׁנָ֖הyear[s]

    shanahH8141 →877 times

  • וּלְמָ֑טָּהand <to> downwards

    ulematahH4295 →

  • כִּ֚יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • אָמַ֣רhe had said

    ʾamarH559 →5305 times

  • יְהוָ֔הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • לְהַרְבּ֥וֹתto multiply

    leharbotH7235 →227 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • כְּכוֹכְבֵ֥יlike [the] stars of

    kechokhveiH3556 →

  • הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃the heavens

    hashamayimH8064 →421 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

8 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Genesis 15:5And 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.”8 works1 Chronicles 21:2–5So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report, so that I may know their number.”4 worksNumbers 1:18and on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation and recorded their ancestry by clans and families, counting one by one the names of those twenty years of age or older,4 worksHebrews 11:12And 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.4 works1 Chronicles 21:5And Joab reported to David the total number of the troops. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, including 470,000 in Judah.3 worksDeuteronomy 1:10The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.2 works
The other 2 cross-references, with their words ▾
Genesis 13:16I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.2 worksNehemiah 9:23You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven and brought them to the land You had told their fathers to enter and possess.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • 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.

    it 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 separate 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.”

    it 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

King David Playing the Harp, Gerard van Honthorst, 1622. Public domain.
King David Playing the Harp, Gerard van Honthorst, 1622. Public domain.
1 Chronicles: the study guide →Read 1 Chronicles 27 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 1 Chronicles 27 →