(a.) Historical Errors.
2 Sam. xxi., 8.
The first example we would bring forward refers to Saul’s daughter Michal, who is called in the book of Samuel “the wife of Adriel.” Now, Adriel did not marry Michal (Saul’s youngest daughter), but Merab. Michal married first David and then Phalti.
This will be evident by a reference to 1 Sam. xviii., 19, 27, where it is said: “When Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel to wife. And Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and Saul gave him Michal, his daughter, to wife.”
During the persecution, David fled from the presence of the king, and Saul then “gave Michal to another husband, whose name was Phalti” (1 Sam. xxv., 44). It is, therefore, an historical error to call Michal the “wife of Adriel.”
2 Chron. xv., 17.
Speaking of Asa, king of Judah, the chronicler says, his “heart was perfect all his days, [but] the high places were not taken away out of Israel.” Where Israel obviously ought to be Judah. The kingdom of David was divided into Judah and Israel, and Asa had nothing whatever to do with the latter.
A similar blunder occurs in 2 Chron. xxi., 3, where Jehoshaphat is called “the King of Israel,” whereas he was King of Judah, as will appear evident from 1 Kings, xxii., 41, where it is said “Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel.” (See also 2 Chron. xxiii., 2.)
And again, 2 Chron. xxviii., 27, we have the same error repeated; for, speaking of Ahaz, king of Judah, the writer says, “they buried him in Jerusalem, but brought him not into the sepulchres of the Kings of Israel,” meaning the kings of Judah.