Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
1 Chronicles 21:6 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 6. 6But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse closes the thought unit with its stated result or transition: “But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “An adversary provokes David's disputed census.”
Read It With
- 1 Chronicles 21:1–6
Read 1 Chronicles 21:6 with 21:1–6. The selected wording supplies one closing in the thought unit with its stated result or transition; the surrounding verses supply the relationships and outcome summarized here: Satan or an adversary stands against Israel, David orders a military census over Joab's objection, large totals are returned, and Levi and Benjamin remain uncounted.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “An adversary provokes David's disputed census,” 1 Chronicles 21:6 closes the thought unit with its stated result or transition through the wording “But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: Chronicles' adversary language, Joab's objection, exclusions, and unfinished count must remain beside Samuel's different agency wording and the later administrative memory of wrath.
Read 1 Chronicles 21:1–6 together
Why these verses belong together: 1 Chronicles 21:1–6 forms the complete movement “An adversary provokes David's disputed census”: Satan or an adversary stands against Israel, David orders a military census over Joab's objection, large totals are returned, and Levi and Benjamin remain uncounted.
Verse 1. 1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
Verse 2. 2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
Verse 3. 3 And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
Verse 4. 4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
Verse 5. 5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
Verse 6. 6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.
Follow the Context
- Satan or an adversary stands against Israel, David orders a military census over Joab's objection, large totals are returned, and Levi and Benjamin remain uncounted.
- The only major narrated Davidic sin in Chronicles begins a movement that will identify the temple site, without protecting David from responsibility.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
1 Chronicles 21:6 does not permit the wording “But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab” to be read apart from the selected verse's context. The passage does not teach that counting people is always sinful, identify Satan exhaustively, excuse David as a passive victim, or make military numbers a measure of human value.
What Remains True
Leadership is accountable for truth, justice, lives, land, and labor; remembered calling or success does not erase harm or remove correction. This unit tests that truth through the narrated movement: Satan or an adversary stands against Israel, David orders a military census over Joab's objection, large totals are returned, and Levi and Benjamin remain uncounted. In 1 Chronicles 21:6, the concrete line “But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.
How It Can Shape Life
- The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.” In leadership decisions, publish the evidence, hear affected people, separate office from immunity, and build consent, review, correction, and remedy into the work. This response follows from the unit's own movement: Satan or an adversary stands against Israel, David orders a military census over Joab's objection, large totals are returned, and Levi and Benjamin remain uncounted.
Teach It Back
Explain why 1 Chronicles 21:6 notes Joab's refusal to count Levi and Benjamin because the command was abhorrent. Use 21:1–6, paraphrase “But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab,” state one source or reconstruction limit, identify one person or group power can obscure, and reject one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Chronicles 21:1–6 — An adversary provokes David's disputed censusSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The unarticulated Hebrew satan may mean an adversary or the proper name Satan; 2 Samuel 24 attributes incitement differently, totals differ, and 4QSam-a and Greek evidence complicate the textual history.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 1 Chronicles 21:1–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 21:1–6
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 1 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 21:1–6, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗