Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records David’s administrative action while organizing the tribal leaders and military commanders. David deliberately withholds a full population count before the enumeration reaches completion.
The words — The Hebrew נָשָׂא (na.Sa') literally means "to take" or "to lift," functioning here as a technical term for conducting a census. Paired with לֹא (lo'-) "not," the phrase states David did not take the number of men from twenty years old and downward.
The thread — The text explicitly ties the halted count to the earlier divine declaration in Genesis 15:5 that God would multiply Israel like the stars. This restraint stands in direct contrast to the later census commanded in 1 Chronicles 21:2, which the context notes brought wrath and was deliberately omitted from the royal records.
Why it lands — The passage records David’s choice to obey a specific divine promise rather than complete a standard military census. It requires the reader to acknowledge that administrative completeness yields to explicit scriptural boundaries.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 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.”
- Numbers 1:18 and 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,
- 1 Chronicles 21:2 So 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.”
- 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.