And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
Joab gave the sum. It amounted to 1,100,000 men in Israel capable of bearing arms, inclusive of the 300,000 military (1 Chronicles 27:1-34:), which, being already enlisted in the royal service, were not reckoned, 2 Samuel 24:9, and to 470,000 men in Judah, omitting 30,000 which formed an army of observation stationed on the Philistine frontier (2 Samuel 6:1). The Syriac version gives the same number in this passage as is stated the parallel one, 2 Samuel 24:9. So large a population at this early period, considering the limited extent of the country, and comparing it with the earlier census (Numbers 26:1-65), is a striking proof of the fulfillment of the promise, Genesis 15:5.