Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but he finished not, because there fell wrath for it against Israel; neither was the number put in the account of the chronicles of king David.
Neither was the number put in the account of the Chronicles of king David - either because the undertaking was not completed, Levi and Benjamin not having been numbered (1 Chronicles 21:6), or the full details in the hands of the enumerating officers were not reported to David, and, consequently, not registered in the public archives. "The Chronicles" were the daily records or annals of the king's reign. No notice was taken of this census in the historical register, as, from the public calamity with which it was associated, it would have stood painful record of the divine judgment against the king and the nation.