All the strangers. — The indigenous Canaanite population. (Comp. the use of the term in Genesis 23:4; Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 17:8.)
After the numbering. — The word sĕphâr, “reckoning,” “census,” occurs here only in the Old Testament.
Wherewith David his father. — The former census of the native Canaanites, which had taken place by order of David, is briefly recorded in 1 Chronicles 22:2. (Comp. 2 Samuel 20:24, “and Adoram was over the levy,” from which it appears that the subject population was liable to forced labour under David; comp. also 1 Kings 4:6; 1 Kings 5:14; 1 Kings 12:4-18.)
And they were found. — The total of the numbers here given is 153,600, which is the sum of the figures assigned in the next verse, viz., 70,000 + 80,000 + 8.600.