2 Samuel 24:3

3 But Joab resisted the king: "May your God multiply people by the hundreds right before the eyes of my master the king, but why on earth would you do a thing like this?"

2 Samuel 24:3 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 24:3

And Joab said unto the king
Not so rudely and insolently as he did on account of his mourning for Absalom, but in a more modest, decent, and polite manner:

now the Lord thy God add unto the people (how many soever they be) an
hundredfold;
he wished his subjects were an hundred times more numerous than they were:

and that the eyes of my lord the king may see [it];
that he might live to see with his own eyes so great an increase:

but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?
he being now old, and therefore it might seem strange to indulge such curiosity, pride, and vanity, and besides quite needless and useless: the numbering of them would not make them more or less; and they were all the king's servants, who were ready to obey him whenever he needed them, whether numbered or not; and it might be prejudicial to them, and bring down the wrath of God upon them, as well as be a troublesome and expensive business; all which, though not expressed here, is hinted at in ( 1 Chronicles 21:3 ) .

2 Samuel 24:3 In-Context

1 Once again God's anger blazed out against Israel. He tested David by telling him, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."

2 So David gave orders to Joab and the army officers under him, "Canvass all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and get a count of the population. I want to know the number."

3 But Joab resisted the king: "May your God multiply people by the hundreds right before the eyes of my master the king, but why on earth would you do a thing like this?"

4 Nevertheless, the king insisted, and so Joab and the army officers left the king to take a census of Israel.

5 They crossed the Jordan and began with Aroer and the town in the canyon of the Gadites near Jazer,