2 Samuel 24:3-8 Joab answered reluctantly: »Your Majesty, may Jehovah your God make the people of Israel a hundred times more numerous than they are now. May you live to see him do it. But why does Your Majesty want to do this?«

NSB⁽ⁱ⁾ ³ Joab answered reluctantly: »Your Majesty, may Jehovah your God make the people of Israel a hundred times more numerous than they are now. May you live to see him do it. But why does Your Majesty want to do this?« ⁴ The king made Joab and his officers obey his order. They left his presence and went out to count the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and camped south of Aroer, the city in the middle of the valley, in the territory of Gad. Then they went north to Jazer. ⁶ They went to Gilead and to Kadesh in Syria. Then they went to Dan (Dan-jaan), Ijon, and on toward Sidon. ⁷ They came to the fortress of Tyre. They went through every town of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Finally, they went to Beersheba in the Southern Desert of Judah. ⁸ After they went through the whole land, they went back to Jerusalem. It took them nine months and twenty days.