SAB, Science and History in 2 Samuel

2 Samuel
Introduction

SAB: 2 Samuel

"He weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels."
Absalom's hair was heavy upon him 14:25-26
In what is surely a biblical exaggeration, we are told that "the servants of David" killed 20,000 soldiers in one day. And that "the wood [forest] devoured more people that day than the sword devoured." It must have been spooky forest to have devoured more than 20,000 soldiers. 18:7-8
A giant with six fingers and six toes. 21:20
"There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth."
What happens when God gets mad? The earth shakes, the foundations of heaven move, smoke comes out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth."22:8-9
"The foundations of the world were discovered ... at the blast of the breath of his nostrils." 22:16
How many soldiers did Israel have? This verse says that Judah and Israel had a total of 1,300,000 fighting men (1 Chr.21:5 says 1,570,000) in this battle. Of course, this is a ridiculously high number for a battle between two tribal armies in 1000 BCE. (The United States had about 1.37 million active duty soldiers in 2001.) 24:9