And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king,.... Having collected from the several captains employed in this work their several particular numbers, he put them together, and gave in the sum total to David:and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; though many of them might be under the age of twenty, yet being robust and tall, and fit to bear arms, though but sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen years of age, were mustered, contrary to the law; which, according to Cornelius Bertram was David's sin, see 1Ch 27:23.
In 1Ch 21:5, they are said to be a million and an hundred thousand, which is three hundred thousand more than the sum here given; several methods are taken to reconcile this; but what seems to be the best solution of the difficulty is what is observed by a Jew , that here the number of the people in the several parts of the land of Israel was given, which were eight hundred thousand, there along with them, the numbers of the standing army which waited on the king in their courses, which were twenty four thousand every, month, and amounted in the twelve months to 288,000, and reckoning lo thousand officers to them, they make the sum of three hundred thousand wanted, see 1Ch 27:1, &c.
and the men of Judah [were] five hundred thousand men. In 1Ch 21:5, they are said to be only 470,000, thirty thousand less than here; which may be accounted for by making use of a round number, though something wanting, as is often done; or else the thirty companies, consisting of a thousand each, under the eighty captains mentioned in 2Sa 23:8, are taken into the account here, but left out in the book of Chronicles; or there were so many in the sum total of the men of Judah before the plague, but thirty thousand being consumed thereby, are left out in the latter accounts, so Kimchi; but the other solutions seem best: Levi and Benjamin were not counted; it being abominable to Joab, he did not finish it, and especially being displeasing to God, who smote Israel for it, 1Ch 21:6.
Lucubrat. Frauktall, c. 2. R. Eliezer in Halicot Olam, tract. 4. c. 3. p.