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See: 1 Chronicles 21:25: And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver's beam. Goliath in Samuel 21 is actually Goliath's brother. It could be that the original audience of the Bible understood that the name Goliath could refer to both ...

I Sam 31 is written in the voice of the anonymous narrator. This narrator writes with the authority of prophecy and so his version of events is the version that we should accept as correct - Saul fell on his own sword as did his armorer. The story told by the Amaleki kid in 2 Sam 1:8 is obviously a lie - the kid claims to David that he identified himself to ...

Not a Hyperbolic Expression The Text of Psalm 51:4: לְךָ לְבַדְּךָ ׀ חָטָאתִי וְהָרַע בְּעֵינֶיךָ עָשִׂיתִי לְמַעַן תִּצְדַּק בְּדָבְרֶךָ תִּזְכֶּה בְשָׁפְטֶֽךָ׃ Explanation 1) "Against you alone" (לְךָ לְבַדְּךָ): This is a prayer of David for repentance (a penitential psalm), and while he sinned against many others in the affair with Bathsheba, ...

And what's wrong with taking a census anyway? I don't believe we are told anywhere that taking a census is wrong, but in Exodus 30, God makes certain commands concerning them: 12 “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when ...

There are two plausible scenarios: It happened as the Amalekite said. The Amalekite embellished the story thinking he would be rewarded for helping David become king. In scenario 1, though Saul's armourbearer presumed Saul was dead, Saul was 'still kickin' and revived when the Amalekite came by. In scenario 2 the Amalekite came upon the scene and ...

Because Absalom had intercourse with them, it would be detestable for David to do so: But if the second husband also turns against her and divorces her, or if he dies, the first husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the Lord.— Deuteronomy 24:3-4 I would argue that in the context of the rest of the ...

Jack Douglas already does a good job of handling the possibility of concurrent causes, so I won't repeat his ideas on the first question. However, I think more can be said in answer to your second question. What's wrong with taking a census? We see in 1 Chronicles 21:3 that what's wrong is not a matter of procedure. The act of taking a census is one that ...

David accepted the death of his child by Bathsheba as punishment for his sin with her and he let that overcome his grief. (The status of the child’s soul is a question for elsewhere.) There was no such consideration in the case of Absalom, and David was overcome by father’s grief. Joab berates him for this, saying that his grief threatens morale. ...

What an excellent question! Aaron had four sons: two died an early death with no survivors, and the other two sons survived:-- Eleazar and Ithamar. Thus the Levites who served as priests at the time of David are all descended from one of these two priestly lines. In the Hebrew Bible, when we see the Ahimelech(father)/Abiathar(son) team, these two are the ...

There is nothing in the text in 2 Samuel 7 or in subsequent writings within the Tanakh that hints that the Davidic covenant spoken through Nathan was spoken falsely by him or embellished. 1 Kings 4:31 esteems the wisdom of Ethan the Ezrahite pretty highly; his wisdom is the bar by which the author compares Solomon's own wisdom. I mention this because Ethan ...

First, remember that David was king, and as king he answered to no one but G-d. He could have ordered Uriah killed on whatever pretext and then taken Bat-Sheva. He had that authority. Instead, what he did was rely on the fact that Jewish soldiers going into battle are required to give their wives conditional retroactive divorce papers which in effect say: ...

One possible way would be to assume a difference in the semantics of the original word(s). As far as I see: This is always true and has to be taken into consideration. (He did not write for us and our time and our understanding. But since this text is so well supported by even the earliest translation up to the latest, it could prove worthwhile to remain ...

Yes, he probably did as the cowardly Ish-Bosheth would never have accused the man he feared without absolute proof. Here is a plausible explaianation based simply on the personalities involved which often serves as a good context to work from. Possibly the key is to recognize that Abner, Saul’s uncle was a powerful and older general who looked down on the ...

Heb 11.13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. We err if we presume that the NT authors gave us ...