2 Samuel 24:3

And Joab said unto the king ,.... Not so rudely and insolently as he did on account of his mourning for Absalom, but in a more modest, decent, and polite manner:

now the Lord thy God add unto the people (how many soever they be) an hundredfold ; he wished his subjects were an hundred times more numerous than they were:

and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it ; that he might live to see with his own eyes so great an increase:

but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing ? he being now old, and therefore it might seem strange to indulge such curiosity, pride, and vanity, and besides quite needless and useless: the numbering of them would not make them more or less; and they were all the king's servants, who were ready to obey him whenever he needed them, whether numbered or not; and it might be prejudicial to them, and bring down the wrath of God upon them, as well as be a troublesome and expensive business; all which, though not expressed here, is hinted at in 1 Chronicles 21:3 .