2 Samuel 24:2

To Joab. The work was assigned to Joab because he was in command of the army, and the census was for military purposes (see v. 9; PP 747).

From Dan even to Beer-sheba. The phrase is reversed in 1 Chron. 21:2, “From Beer-sheba even to Dan” (see 2 Chron. 30:5). In all the earlier books — in Judges, Samuel, and Kings — the reading is “from Dan even to Beer-sheba” (Judges 20:1; 1 Sam. 3:20; 2 Sam. 3:10; 17:11; 24:2, 15; 1 Kings 4:25). A possible explanation for the reversal is that at the time when Chronicles was written, about the 5th century B.C., the part of the early kingdom uppermost in the Hebrew mind was Judah, for the northern kingdom of Israel had ended two centuries earlier. Since Dan was in the northern kingdom, it would hardly have seemed appropriate to name it before Beersheba. Thus the use of this expression, “from Dan even to Beer-sheba,” is an indication of the early date of the books of Samuel.