In Joshua 8:28 Joshua burned Ai, but Joshua 11:13 says that only Hazor was burned during the conquest of Canaan. Also, in the Joshua account, everyone, including the king had been destroyed (Joshua 11:11-12), but in Judges 4:17, the king of Hazor is very much alive and Hazor is intact!
Three cities were burned: Jericho, Ai, and Hazor. Joshua 11:13 points out that of the raised cities on mounds (which were not all the c(ities) conquered by the Israelites, only Hazor was burned. The other cities on mounds were not destroyed but occupied after the original occupants had been put to the sword (the "ban" חֲרֵ֔ם meaning "utterly destroyed" as commanded by God). As for Joshua 11:12-13 compared to Judges 4:17 (this is William Dever's contradiction), there is really no contradiction. Jabin is a dynastic title, a Hebrew name meaning "wise" or "one who discerns" (cf. Job 6:30). It is not the name of a particular king. In Joshua 11, this Jabin led a coalition of kings against Israel. The events of Judges 4 were 160 years after the death of Joshua. At this time, Hazor had been rebuilt (probably because of a good water supply in the region), and another king Jabin led an alliance with Heber the Kenite.
Discrepancies Between 2 Samuel 24 and 1Chronicles 21
1. Was David “incited” by the Lord (2 Samuel 24:1), or was David incited by Satan (1 Chronicles 21:1)?
In both accounts the same word and causative form is used (וְ particle conjunction, סות hiphil imperfect 3rd person masculine singular) meaning “to incite/provoke.” To understand how this works, we can go to Job to see how the LORD uses Satan to harm Job, up to a limit as God is always in control, in order to do a larger purpose (Job 1:6-12). In God’s foreknowledge and foreordination, God will bring about a matter to meet His goal for an individual, whether it be Job or David, but he does not author the event. It is Satan that does the actual temptation and harm, but nothing is outside of God’s sovereign will and design.
In the end, Job came to a deeper appreciation of his position in relation to God (Job 41-42), and David’s character was molded so that he would become a better person. All the things God did in David’s life led to honoring the man he had killed, Uriah the Hittite, in 2 Samuel 23:29 and for him to say in 2 Samuel 24:24 that he would pay for and not take the site for an altar to the Lord saying “I will not sacrifice… burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
2. Total number of men numbered: 800,000 who could handle a sword in Israel and 500,000 in Judah (2 Samuel 24:9); OR one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword in Israel, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah. (1Chronicles 21:5 NIV).
It is probably best to see the larger number in 1 Chronicles 21 as the final count and the smaller number in 2 Samuel 24 as a preliminary count.
3. Choices for David in punishment of Israel: Seven years of famine in the land? Three months of fleeing from enemies? Or three days of plague in the land (2 Samuel 24:13 NIV); OR Three years of famine in the land? Three months of fleeing from enemies? Or three days of plague in the land (1 Chronicles 21:21).
In the 2 Samuel passage, the Septuagint (LXX) says “three years”（ τρία ἔτη ) which reflects an earlier Hebrew script. At some time between that time and the copying of what was to become the Masoretic text there was a scribal error.
4. Did he pay Araunah the Jebusite fifty shekels of silver (2 Samuel 24:24 NIV); OR six hundred shekels of gold (1Chronicles 21:25 NIV)?
The payment of the fifty shekels was for the threshing floor and the oxen, but for the entire site which apparently included the wheat for the grain offering he paid six hundred shekels of gold where he would build an altar to the Lord. This, apparently, later became King Solomon’s Temple Mount area.
In Exodus 11, it appears God is cruel and inconsistent with a pro-life/anti-abortion viewpoint in the killing of the first-born in Egypt.
First of all, God was being consistent with a promise He had made to Israel: Genesis 12:3 "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you," and the follow-up was the curse on Egypt in the plagues AND retribution for the killing by Pharaoh of the first-born in Israel in Exodus 1:22. Second, no assumption should be made that the death of the first-born in Egypt was of babies in the womb or even of newborns. So, this is "apples and oranges" to compare abortion to this action in Egypt. It is better to compare this action by God to the "ban" (hārum חָרֻ֖ם ) or "dedication" resulting in the destruction of the Canaanites after years of warning.51 Both Pharaoh and the Canaanites had been warned of their impending destruction. While God is not willing that any should perish (Jonah 3:9, Isaiah 66:12, Matthew 18:14, John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9), it is a fact that sin and rebellion results in death-- even of whole societies (Joshua 11:20).
Is there an error between 2 Kings 8:26 and 2 Chronicles 22:2 concerning the age of Ahaziah?
An Islamic apologist was once trying to disprove the Bible as being the Word of God by pointing out a discrepancy between 2 Kings 8:26 and 2 Chronicles 22:2. In the 2 Chronicles passage, it is stated that King Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began his reign in Jerusalem (according to the King James Version). However, in the 2 Kings passage it states that he was twenty-two years old when he began his reign. Therefore, the Bible can’t be the Word of God because of this error. The problem with their argument is two-fold: first, before coming to a conclusion of error one must always go to the original language or the earliest rendering of the passage. While it is true that the Hebrew text in 2 Chronicles says forty-two, an earlier preservation in the Septuagint Greek translation says twenty-two years. According to the encyclopedia Britanica, the Masoretic text, from which we get our Hebrew Bible, was compiled some eight centuries after the Septuagint.52 Almost all modern English translations say twenty-two years in both passages. Second, if the Islamic apologist would read Quran 3:2-453 they would know that Muslims are required to believe that the previous revelations of God, in the Old and New Testaments, are from Allah. If the Bible is not the Word of God, then the Quran could not be telling the truth.
See also the discussion in Archer, pp. 206-207 (referenced in endnote 5).
What is the meaning of "Baptism for the dead"?
Paul’s teaching on “baptism for the dead” (βαπτιζόμενοι ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν) in 1 Corinthians 15:29 must be understood in the context of the entire chapter and of Paul’s teaching on Baptism in Romans 6. Who are the dead that are baptized for? This is not an argument for proxy baptism in behalf of ancestors, as groups such as Mormons would argue. It is baptism for those undergoing baptism themselves, who are described as dead in their sin but have placed their faith in Christ and as Christ who died and was raised, they also will be raised. It might be helpful to understand τῶν νεκρῶν as “the corpses” not necessarily a different person than the ones being baptized themselves. “Baptized” is passive voice and the phrase could be translated “the ones being baptized for the corpses.” Those being baptized are not proxies for others unable to be present themselves. Proxy baptism suggests that baptism needs to be done for salvation, but we know the criteria for salvation is confession of the Lordship of Jesus and the belief that He was raised from the dead (Romans 10:9, 10)! Baptism in water is not a requirement for salvation (see Ephesians 2:8; Romans 3:28; 4:3; 8:3-4). The context of 1 Corinthians 15 is Paul arguing for bodily resurrection. Jesus was not raised a spirit which would correspond to Greek and Docetist thinking, but as a BODY. When he says Jesus was raised as a spiritual body (15:44), the identifying word should be the noun, not the adjective.
Romans 6 confirms what takes place in baptism. When we are being baptized, we are identified with Jesus in His death in a public forum. When we are identified with Jesus in His death it follows, we are identified with Him in His resurrection. The point of being baptized is identification as dead people who come alive. We are new creatures alive to live in power.54 We consider that when we are baptized, we testify that our sinful corpse is going under water and rising a new living soul signifying death and resurrection.
