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.
Ver. 9. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men.] Another prophet saith, eleven hundred thousand, 1Ch 21:5 taking in Levi and Benjamin, which Joab reckoned not. 1Ch 21:6 The men of Judah also were five hundred thousand men. Now a man would wonder at so great numbers in so small a land: for Judea was not above two hundred miles long and fifty miles broad, say geographers; not near the half of England by much. These great numbers were somewhat abated by the following pestilence: like as the English lately were by the sweating sickness, which reigned here some forty years together, and slew so many, that strangers wondered how this island could be so populous, to bear and bury such incredible multitudes.