^8 (A)And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, ^(B)too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.

⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and ^(A)number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, ^(B)“So shall your offspring be.”

² So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.”

¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring ^(A)as the stars of heaven and ^(B)as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess ^(C)the gate of his^[a] enemies,

^16 (A)I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.

²³ David did not count those below twenty years of age, for the ^(A)Lord had promised to make Israel as many as the stars of heaven. ²⁴ Joab the son of Zeruiah began to count, but ^(B)did not finish. Yet ^(C)wrath came upon Israel for this, and the number was not entered in the chronicles of King David.

⁵ And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were ^(A)1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah ^(B)470,000 who drew the sword. ^6 (C)But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab.

^22 (A)For the Lord will not forsake his people, ^(B)for his great name's sake, because ^(C)it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

⁶ “For ^(A)you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be ^(B)a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but ^(C)it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping ^(D)the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.