The Skeptics Annotated Bible (295 page)

21 Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.

22 And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?

23 But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

24
And David comforted Bath-sheba his wife, and went in unto her
, and lay with her:
and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon
: and
the LORD loved him.

(12.24a) “And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her.” After Bathsheba’s baby is killed by God, David comforts her by going “in unto her.” (He’s such a nice guy!) She conceives and bears another son (Solomon).

(12.24b)
“And she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon.”
206 Was Solomon David’s second or fourth son by Bathsheba?

(12.24c-25)
“The LORD loved him … and he called his his name Jedidiah
.” After God killed Bathsheba’s baby boy, David got her pregnant again. God loved this baby (and so he decided not to kill it) and he called him Jedidiah, but everyone else called him Solomon.

25 And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet;
and he called his name Jedidiah
, because of the LORD.

26 And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city.

27 And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters.

28 Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my name.

29 And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it.

30 And he took their king’s crown from off his head,
the weight whereof was a talent of gold
with the precious stones: and it was set on David’s head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.

(12.30)
“The weight whereof was a talent of gold.”
David puts on a gold crown weighing 1 talent (somewhere between 26 and 60 kilograms).

31 And
he
brought forth the people that were therein, and
put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln:
and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.

(12.31)
“He … put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln.”
David tortured or enslaved (depending on translation) all the inhabitants of several cities.

(13.1-22) Amnon (David’s son) says to his half-sister Tamar, “Come lie with me, my sister.” But she resists. So he rapes her and then sends her away. Tamar, knowing that she now belongs to him (since she was a virgin), expects him to marry her, but he refuses.