Elijah is said to have brought fire from heaven by his bare word, and by this means were consumed two companies sent to arrest him, each company consisting of 50 men.
Jonah.
The prophet Jonah is said to have been swallowed by a whale. Presuming it possible for a whale to swallow a man, no man could live three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, and then be cast by it on dry land.
Deuteronomy, viii., 4.
Moses tells us that in forty years’ time the “raiment of his three million wanderers” waxed not old, and though marching all that time about the hot desert, “their feet did not swell” from the scorching sand.
1 Chronicles, xix., 6, 7.
Hanun of Ammon sent 1000 talents of silver (£342,000) to Mesopotamia, for the hire of 32,000 chariots (!!). Is not this wholly at variance with sober history? Is it credible? In the parallel account given in 2 Sam. x., 6, there is no mention of these 32,000 chariots of war.
2 Chronicles, xiv., 9.
It is stated that Mareshah, in Judea, was invaded in the reign of Asa, by a million Ethiopians and 300 chariots (!!).
These are a few specimens of the unhistoric character of the history of the Old Testament. We will add one or two instances of the equally incredible statements of the wealth of Bible Kings.