(3) And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? (4) Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. (5) And they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer: (6) Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon, (7) And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba. (8) So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. (9) And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
It is worthy remark how ineffectual all advice is when grace leads us not. This childish gratification of David, to speak the best of it, seems to have had so little temptation to lead to the commission of this sin, that we only wonder, at times, how it is that believers, who had been victorious upon great temptations, have fallen by the less. But it is grace makes all the difference. If JESUS keep us, we are safe. If the holding up his arm be but for a moment withdrawn, all our strength gives way to the most pitiful temptation. One should have thought the number both of Israel and of Judah would have been greater. It was now about four hundred and thirty years from the time that Joshua brought the people into Canaan; and yet the increase had not been much above double in all that time.