The Skeptics Annotated Bible (323 page)

4 Nevertheless
for David’s sake
did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:

(15.4)
“For David’s sake
” Why did God love David so much? Because he was, like God, a murderous psychopath?

5 Because
David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

(15.5)
“David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
David never sinned, “save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
210 Did David sin?

6 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

7 Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

8 And Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead.

9 And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah.

10 And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And
his mother’s name was Maachah
, the daughter of Abishalom.

(15.10)
“His mother’s name was Maachah.”
Did Abijam marry his own mother? Since Asa’s father was Abijam and they had the same mother (Maachah), Abijam was both father and brother to Asa.
233 How were Abijam and Asa related?

11 And
Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.

(15.11)
“Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, As did David his father.”

12 And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

(15.12)
“He took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols.”
Asa “did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD” by expelling homosexuals (or “sodomites”, as the good book calls them).
130 How should homosexuals be treated?

13 And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.

14
But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.

(15.14)
“But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.”
234 Did Asa remove the high places?
235 Was Asa perfect?