Joab reports the census results: the total of fighting men capable of drawing a sword is one million one hundred thousand, with Judah comprising four hundred seventy thousand. The enormity of the census figures underscores the vast military resources available to David and may suggest the exaggeration inherent in royal military statistics of the ancient Near East. The separate enumeration of Judah suggests that this kingdom maintained its own military organization even within the united monarchy under David. The scale of these numbers raises questions about the accuracy of the census and the reliability of the counting method, potentially indicating that the census itself was flawed or that these figures represent idealized rather than actual military strength. The vast military resources enumerated in the census paradoxically reveal that such numbers provide no security whatsoever, as the subsequent plague will demonstrate.

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