Joab gave up the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword.
World English Bible
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Joab gave up the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword.
World English Bible
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
The historical record: The two accounts differ: 2 Samuel 24:9 gives about 1.3 million and 1 Chronicles 21:5 about 1.57 million. · 2 documented · 2 debated
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
2 Samuel 24:9 gives the census totals as 800,000 for Israel and 500,000 for Judah. 1 Chronicles 21:5 gives the same census as 1,100,000 for Israel and 470,000 for Judah.
Critical scholarship: Leans toward a genuine contradiction.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"1 Chronicles 21:5 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/1-chronicles/21/5?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).