The sum of the people's census. If there was a counting, why was a [second] counting [needed]?⁠¹ He [Yoav] made two countings, one major one and one smaller one. He reasoned, "I will show him [Dovid] the smaller one and if he gets angry, I will show him the larger one.⁠" That is why the verse uses the word מִפְקָד which conveys [that something is] missing. This is how [the verse] is interpreted in the Pesikta.

Yisroel's [total] was. They became enfeebled like a woman.⁠²

Eight hundred thousand. But in Divrei HaYamim³ it says, "One million and one hundred thousand"? In the Aggadah of the Amoroyim⁴ we find, Rabbi Yehoshua, the son of Levi said The verses fill in in one place what is missing in another place; there are two tribes which were not counted⁵ because this is what is written in Divrei HaYamim,⁠⁶ "Levi and Binyomin were not counted among them because the king's command was abhorrent to Yoav.⁠" Yoav said, With these [tribes] I can escape [from my commitment] and say [as an excuse] The tribe of Levi is not counted together with the rest of the tribes but [instead] is counted from one month old and up⁷ [and as far as] Binyomin [is concerned] it is enough that [their ranks] were depleted by the incident of the concubine in the valley.⁠⁸ In the tract about the thirty-two rules [by which the Torah is elucidated] [authored] by Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi Yosse the Galilite we learned [as follows], one verse says,⁠⁹ "The [total of] all Yisroel was one million and one hundred thousand… and Yehudah [totaled] four hundred and seventy thousand.⁠" Another verse says,⁠¹⁰ "Yisroel's [total] was eight hundred thousand… and the men of Yehudah were five hundred thousand.⁠" The difference between the two [accounts] is three hundred thousand.⁠" What happenned to them? A third verse redresses the imbalance, "The people of Yisroel by their number, of the heads of families and the officers in charge of thousands and of hundreds and their marshals serving the king in all matters pertaining to the division those entering [the service] and those leaving, for every month of the year, each division had twenty-four thousand men.⁠" This teaches us that the [missing] three hundred thousand were [already] accounted for in the royal record and did not need to be counted [again].⁠¹¹ How does this work?⁠¹² Twenty four thousand for [each of the] twelve [months] gives us two hundred and eighty-eight thousand this leaves us with twelve thousand [still unaccounted for] these are the leaders of Yisroel¹³ themselves.⁠¹⁴