2 Samuel 24:9

In Israel eight hundred thousand—of Judah five hundred thousand— There are two returns left us of this numbering; the present, and that in 1 Chronicles 21:5 which differ considerably from each other, especially in relation to the men of Israel, who, in the first, are returned but 800,000, but in the last 1,100,000; but, I think, a careful attention to both the texts, and to the nature of the thing, will easily reconcile them. The matter appears to me thus: Joab, who resolved from the beginning not to number the people, but who at the same time wished to shew his own tribe in the best light, and make their number as considerable as he could, numbered every man among them, from twenty years old and upwards, and so returned them to be 500,000. But in Israel he only made a return of such men as were exercised and proved in arms; and therefore the number of persons above twenty years old is less in his return here than in Chronicles. In a word, in the present text the whole of Judah is returned, and only the men of approved valour in Israel. In Chronicles, the whole of Israel is expressly returned; but the particle all is not prefixed to those of Judah; probably, therefore, the men of tried valour in that tribe only are included in that return; and if so, the returns must of necessity be very different. Mr.

Maundrell observes, that "in travelling from Kane-leban to Beer, the country presented nothing to the view, in most places, but naked rocks, mountains, and precipices; at sight of which pilgrims are apt to be much astonished and baulked in their expectations, finding that country in such an inhospitable condition, concerning whose pleasantness and plenty they had before formed in their minds such high ideas, from the description given of it in the word of God; insomuch that it almost startles their faith, when they reflect how it could be possible for a land like this to supply food for so prodigious a number of inhabitants as are here said to have been polled in the twelve tribes at one time; the sum given in by Joab amounting to no less than 1,300,000 fighting men, besides women and children. But it is certain, that any man, who is not a little biassed to infidelity before, may see, as he passes along, arguments enough to support his faith against such scruples. For it is easy for any one to observe, that these rocks and hills must have been anciently covered with earth, and cultivated, and made to contribute to the maintenance of the inhabitants no less than if the country had been all plain; nay, perhaps, much more: forasmuch as such a mountainous and uneven surface affords a larger space of ground for cultivation than this country would amount to, if it were all reduced to a perfect level. For the husbanding of these mountains, their manner was, to gather up the stones, and place them in several lines along the sides of the hills, in form of a wall. By such borders they supported the mould from tumbling or being washed down, and formed many beds of excellent soil, rising gradually one above another, from the bottom to the top of the mountains. Of this form of culture you see evident footsteps wherever you go in all the mountains of Palestine. Thus the very rocks were made fruitful: and, perhaps, there is no spot of ground in this whole land which was not formerly improved, to the production of something or other, ministering to the sustenance of human life. For, than the plain countries nothing can be more fruitful, whether for the production of corn or cattle, and consequently of milk. The hills, though improper for all cattle except goats, yet being disposed into such beds as are afore-described, served very well to bear corn, melons, gourds, cucumbers, and such like garden-stuff, which makes the principal food of these countries for several months in the year. The most rocky parts of all, which could not well be adjusted in that manner for the production of corn, might yet serve for the plantation of vines and olive trees; which delight to extract, the one their fatness, the other their sprightly juice, chiefly out of such dry and flinty places: and the great plain adjoining to the Dead Sea, which, by reason of its saltness, might be thought unserviceable both for cattle, corn, olives, and vines, hath yet its proper usefulness for the nourishment of bees, and for the fabrick of honey; of which Josephus gives us his testimony, De Bell. Jud. l. v. c. 4 and I have reason to believe it, because when I was there, I perceived in many places a smell of honey and wax as strong as if one had been in an apiary. Why, then, might not this country very well maintain the vast number of its inhabitants, being in every part so productive of either milk, corn, wine, oil, or honey, which are the principal food of those eastern nations? The constitution of their bodies, and the nature of their clime, inclining them to a more abstemious diet than we use in England, and other colder regions." Journey from Aleppo, p. 65. See a curious Dissertation of Professor Michaelis on this subject: in which, not to mention his judicious observations upon the abundance which commerce procured to Palestine, in this respect pretty similar to Holland, and upon the causes which concurred to render hot countries more proper than ours to feed and clothe innumerable multitudes of inhabitants, the celebrated author shews, that by virtue of the conquests of David, and even long before, the Israelites had obtained a right of feeding their flocks freely, after the manner of the Nomades, throughout all Arabia, as far as the banks of the Euphrates.