“But he didn’t count Levi and Binyamin among them,
because the king’s order was hateful to Yo’av.”
-1 Chronicles 21:6
So yesterday I said that the account of this census here in 2nd Samuel 24 also appears in 1st Chronicles 21.
However, the numbers don’t quite add up.
And we’re also told that Benjamin and Levi were not counted in the 1st Chronicles account.
Verse 6 in 1st Chronicles 21 (copied and pasted above) tells us that Joab stopped counting “because the king’s order was hateful to Yo’av.”
What are we to make of that statement?
Basically, I think Joab became disgusted with the whole affair.
So he was like “Screw this, man!” and decided to stop counting.
Now the ancient Jewish sages have an interesting take on this.
They’ll say that the 1.1 million figure actually includes Benjamin, and possibly even Levi!
Honestly, man, I don’t find that very convincing.
Benjamin had almost been wiped out earlier, after the horrific event with the concubine at Gibeah (remember how her body got chopped up into 12 pieces and then sent to all the tribes).
I find it hard to believe that the population of Benjamin bounced back enough to equal a large number of men.
And while I can imagine David ignoring the rule about not counting Levi…
I can’t imagine the Levites being so many that they would add 300,000 people to the total.
So here’s what it comes down to.
I don’t know why this discrepancy exists.
And neither does anyone else on planet earth.
That’s right.
It could be a copyist’s mistake.
The truth is, we have no way of knowing which account, the one in 2nd Samuel or the one in 1st Chronicles, is correct.
That’s the bottom line…so we just gotta accept it.
Here’s a quick numerical comparison for you homies out there who are mathematically challenged:
In the 2nd Samuel 24 account:
Israel (North): 800,000
Judah (South): 500,000
Total=1,300,000
In the 1st Chronicles 21 account:
Israel (North)=1,100,000
Judah (South)=470,000
Total=1,570,000
The 1st Chronicles’ account of Israel (North) contains 300,000 more people.
However, the 1st Chronicles’ account of Judah (South) contains 30,000 fewer people.
The total difference between the two accounts is 270,000 souls.
So what takeaway can we extract from this?
Simple.
Some parts of Scripture contain irreconcilable errors.
And that’s that.
Does it mean we can’t trust our Bibles?
Absolutely not.
I’m betting my very soul on the eternal truths contained in Holy Writ.
But at the end of the day, it is a book that has been handed down to us from ancient Middle Eastern languages going back thousands of years.
So it is inevitable that parts of it contain discrepancies that we’ll never be able to figure out, no matter how hard we try.
Ya feel me, man?
Done.
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