2 Samuel 24:3-5

English Standard Version

³ But Joab said to the king, ^(A)“May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” ⁴ But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and began from ^(B)Aroer,^[a] and from the city that is in the middle of the ^(C)valley, toward Gad and on to ^(D)Jazer.