1 Chronicles 21:2

And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba, on the extreme southern boundary, even to Dan, in the extreme north, and bring the number of them to me that I may know it. While the taking of a census in itself was not sinful, the one contemplated by David was the work of proud boastfulness and wicked haughtiness, an overemphasizing of his political power.