The Fighting Men of Israel

In my previous post, I showed that the New International Version, (hereafter, the "NIV") can be used to show that there are flaws in the Bible. In this post, I will show that another discrepancy exists in the Hebrew Bible, regarding the fighting men of Israel. If any would-be apologist for biblical inerrancy would like to dispute what I am about to demonstrate, I will be happy to respond with the best evidence that I know of showing that a discrepancy really does exist. So what is this discrepancy? The discrepancy is that in a few passages, the fighting men of Israel who left Egypt all died in the desert, leaving none alive forty years later, as the Hebrews were about to enter into the land promised to them while other passages show that the fighting men who left Israel were alive and well, forty years later and were about to enter the land promised to them.

According to a number of passages in Numbers, Moses and Aaron were commanded to take a census of all of the fighting men of Israel, twenty years and older, and because they rebelled against Moses and Aaron. Therefore, Yahweh promised that all of the men counted in the census would die in the desert and after they had all died, a new census of fighting men was taken. None of the fighting men counted in the first census would live forty years later and would be allowed to enter into the promised land. Certain passages in Deuteronomy show, to the contrary, that the fighting men of Israel were alive and well, forty years later, and were about to enter the promised land.

To begin with, the number of fighting men of Israel was counted in the first census and the total number of men in the census was 603,550. This can be shown by examining the first chapter of Numbers. In Numbers 1:1-54, we read:

The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: ² “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. ³ You and Aaron are to count according to their divisions all the men in Israel who are twenty years old or more and able to serve in the army. ⁴ One man from each tribe, each of them the head of his family, is to help you. ⁵ These are the names of the men who are to assist you:

from Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur;

⁶ from Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai;

⁷ from Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab;

⁸ from Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar;

⁹ from Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon;

¹⁰ from the sons of Joseph:

from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud;

from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur;

¹¹ from Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni;

¹² from Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai;

¹³ from Asher, Pagiel son of Okran;

¹⁴ from Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel;

¹⁵ from Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.”

¹⁶ These were the men appointed from the community, the leaders of their ancestral tribes. They were the heads of the clans of Israel.

¹⁷ Moses and Aaron took these men whose names had been specified, ¹⁸ and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people registered their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one, ¹⁹ as the Lord commanded Moses. And so he counted them in the Desert of Sinai:

²⁰ From the descendants of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, one by one, according to the records of their clans and families. ²¹ The number from the tribe of Reuben was 46,500.

²² From the descendants of Simeon:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were counted and listed by name, one by one, according to the records of their clans and families. ²³ The number from the tribe of Simeon was 59,300.

²⁴ From the descendants of Gad:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ²⁵ The number from the tribe of Gad was 45,650.

²⁶ From the descendants of Judah:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ²⁷ The number from the tribe of Judah was 74,600.

²⁸ From the descendants of Issachar:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ²⁹ The number from the tribe of Issachar was 54,400.

³⁰ From the descendants of Zebulun:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³¹ The number from the tribe of Zebulun was 57,400.

³² From the sons of Joseph:

From the descendants of Ephraim:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³³ The number from the tribe of Ephraim was 40,500.

³⁴ From the descendants of Manasseh:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³⁵ The number from the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200.

³⁶ From the descendants of Benjamin:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³⁷ The number from the tribe of Benjamin was 35,400.

³⁸ From the descendants of Dan:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³⁹ The number from the tribe of Dan was 62,700.

⁴⁰ From the descendants of Asher:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ⁴¹ The number from the tribe of Asher was 41,500.

⁴² From the descendants of Naphtali:

All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ⁴³ The number from the tribe of Naphtali was 53,400.

⁴⁴ These were the men counted by Moses and Aaron and the twelve leaders of Israel, each one representing his family. ⁴⁵ All the Israelites twenty years old or more who were able to serve in Israel’s army were counted according to their families. ⁴⁶ The total number was 603,550.

⁴⁷ The ancestral tribe of the Levites, however, was not counted along with the others. ⁴⁸ The Lord had said to Moses: ⁴⁹ “You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites. ⁵⁰ Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the covenant law—over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it. ⁵¹ Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who approaches it is to be put to death. ⁵² The Israelites are to set up their tents by divisions, each of them in their own camp under their standard. ⁵³ The Levites, however, are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the covenant law so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the covenant law.”

⁵⁴ The Israelites did all this just as the Lord commanded Moses.

The entirety of the first chapter of Numbers has been quoted because it can be used to establish the fact that the census of the fighting men who were alive and left Egypt, was 603,550. In the above passage, I have highlighted in bold, the numbers given from each tribe. If one adds the numbers, one gets a total of 603, 550.

1.) The tribe of Reuben: 46, 500.
2.) The tribe of Simeon: 59, 300.
3.) The tribe of God: 45, 650.
4.) The tribe of Judah: 74, 600.
5.) The tribe of Issachar: 54, 400.
6.) The tribe of Zebulun: 57, 400.
7.) The tribe of Ephraim: 40, 500.
8.) The tribe of Manasseh: 32, 200.
9.) The tribe of Benjamin: 35, 400.
10.) The tribe of Dan: 62, 700.
11.) The tribe of Asher: 41, 500.
12.) The tribe of Naphtali: 53, 400.

The sum total of all of these numbers is: 603, 550. To see why this is important, we need to view a few more passages from the book of Numbers. The next is Numbers 13: 1-33:

The Lord said to Moses, ² “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

³ So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. ⁴ These are their names:

from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zakkur;

⁵ from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;

⁶ from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;

⁷ from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;

⁸ from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;

⁹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;

¹⁰ from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;

¹¹ from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi;

¹² from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;

¹³ from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;

¹⁴ from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;

¹⁵ from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki.

¹⁶ These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)

¹⁷ When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? ²⁰ How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
²¹ So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. ²² They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ²³ When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. ²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land;

²⁶ They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. ²⁸ But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

³⁰ Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” ³² And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³ We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

A few facts are evident from this passage. First, the men who go into the promised land bring back a report to Moses, Aaron, and the whole Israelite community and showed them the fruit that they had gotten from the land. Second, as evident from verse 28, they say that the people of the land are powerful, and the cities very large and fortified and then go onto list some of the people there, including the descendants of Anak. Third, Caleb tells the people that they should up and take possession of the land. Forth, the men who went into the land discourage everyone by saying that the people are stronger and cannot be attacked and this bad report spreads throughout the community.

To see what happens next, we need to read Numbers 14: 1-38:

That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. ² All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! ³ Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴ And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there.

⁶ Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. ⁸ If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

¹⁰ But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? ¹² I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. ¹⁴ And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

¹⁷ “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ ¹⁹ In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”

²⁰ The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. ²¹ Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, ²² not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— ²³ not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. ²⁴ But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. ²⁵ Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.”

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. ²⁸ So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: ²⁹ In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. ³⁰ Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹ As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. ³² But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴ For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.”

³⁶ So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it— ³⁷ these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord.
³⁸ Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.

From this passage, a few facts are evident. first, the community wept that night and all of the Israelites grumbled against Moses and want to elect a new leader to take them back to Egypt. Second, both Joshua (the son of Nun) and Caleb (the son of Jephunneh) discourage them from wanting to rebel against Moses and Aaron and choosing a new leader to take them back to Egypt and, instead, encourage them to go into the promised land because Yahweh is on their side; the enemies are no match for them. Third, the whole community talks about stoning Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb, and so Yahweh then tells Moses that he will strike them down with a plague and make Moses the patriarch of a new nation. Forth, Yahweh then decides that even though he has forgiven the Hebrews for rebelling, all of the men who saw the signs that he performed in Egypt will not live to see the land (in verse 22) with the exception of Caleb.

Next, Yahweh states that (in verse 29) all of the Hebrew men (twenty years and older) who were counted in the census, will all fall to their deaths, except Joshua and Caleb. Last, all of the men counted in the census will die, each and every one of them, for forty years, will all die and none of the men, who saw the miraculous signs of Yahweh and were counted in the census, will live to enter the land promised to them.

After all of the Hebrews that were counted in the first census died, Yahweh commanded Moses and Eleazar to take a new census; this time, they were on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, across from Jericho. In Numbers 26: 1-65, we read:

After the plague the Lord said to Moses and Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, ² “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by families—all those twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel.” ³ So on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them and said, ⁴ “Take a census of the men twenty years old or more, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

These were the Israelites who came out of Egypt:

⁵ The descendants of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were:

through Hanok, the Hanokite clan;

through Pallu, the Palluite clan;

⁶ through Hezron, the Hezronite clan;

through Karmi, the Karmite clan.

⁷ These were the clans of Reuben; those numbered were 43,730.

⁸ The son of Pallu was Eliab, ⁹ and the sons of Eliab were Nemuel, Dathan and Abiram. The same Dathan and Abiram were the community officials who rebelled against Moses and Aaron and were among Korah’s followers when they rebelled against the Lord. ¹⁰ The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them along with Korah, whose followers died when the fire devoured the 250 men. And they served as a warning sign. ¹¹ The line of Korah, however, did not die out.

¹² The descendants of Simeon by their clans were:

through Nemuel, the Nemuelite clan;

through Jamin, the Jaminite clan;

through Jakin, the Jakinite clan;

¹³ through Zerah, the Zerahite clan;

through Shaul, the Shaulite clan.

¹⁴ These were the clans of Simeon; those numbered were 22,200.

¹⁵ The descendants of Gad by their clans were:

through Zephon, the Zephonite clan;

through Haggi, the Haggite clan;

through Shuni, the Shunite clan;

¹⁶ through Ozni, the Oznite clan;

through Eri, the Erite clan;

¹⁷ through Arodi, the Arodite clan;

through Areli, the Arelite clan.

¹⁸ These were the clans of Gad; those numbered were 40,500.

¹⁹ Er and Onan were sons of Judah, but they died in Canaan.

²⁰ The descendants of Judah by their clans were:

through Shelah, the Shelanite clan;

through Perez, the Perezite clan;

through Zerah, the Zerahite clan.

²¹ The descendants of Perez were:

through Hezron, the Hezronite clan;

through Hamul, the Hamulite clan.

²² These were the clans of Judah; those numbered were 76,500.

²³ The descendants of Issachar by their clans were:

through Tola, the Tolaite clan;

through Puah, the Puite clan;

²⁴ through Jashub, the Jashubite clan;

through Shimron, the Shimronite clan.

²⁵ These were the clans of Issachar; those numbered were 64,300.

²⁶ The descendants of Zebulun by their clans were:

through Sered, the Seredite clan;

through Elon, the Elonite clan;

through Jahleel, the Jahleelite clan.

²⁷ These were the clans of Zebulun; those numbered were 60,500.

²⁸ The descendants of Joseph by their clans through Manasseh and Ephraim were:

²⁹ The descendants of Manasseh:

through Makir, the Makirite clan (Makir was the father of Gilead);

through Gilead, the Gileadite clan.

³⁰ These were the descendants of Gilead:

through Iezer, the Iezerite clan;

through Helek, the Helekite clan;

³¹ through Asriel, the Asrielite clan;

through Shechem, the Shechemite clan;

³² through Shemida, the Shemidaite clan;

through Hepher, the Hepherite clan.

³³ (Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons; he had only daughters, whose names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah.)

³⁴ These were the clans of Manasseh; those numbered were 52,700.

³⁵ These were the descendants of Ephraim by their clans:

through Shuthelah, the Shuthelahite clan;

through Beker, the Bekerite clan;

through Tahan, the Tahanite clan.

³⁶ These were the descendants of Shuthelah:

through Eran, the Eranite clan.

³⁷ These were the clans of Ephraim; those numbered were 32,500.

These were the descendants of Joseph by their clans.

³⁸ The descendants of Benjamin by their clans were:

through Bela, the Belaite clan;

through Ashbel, the Ashbelite clan;

through Ahiram, the Ahiramite clan;

³⁹ through Shupham, the Shuphamite clan;

through Hupham, the Huphamite clan.

⁴⁰ The descendants of Bela through Ard and Naaman were:

through Ard, the Ardite clan;

through Naaman, the Naamite clan.

⁴¹ These were the clans of Benjamin; those numbered were 45,600.

⁴² These were the descendants of Dan by their clans:

through Shuham, the Shuhamite clan.

These were the clans of Dan: ⁴³ All of them were Shuhamite clans; and those numbered were 64,400.

⁴⁴ The descendants of Asher by their clans were:

through Imnah, the Imnite clan;

through Ishvi, the Ishvite clan;

through Beriah, the Beriite clan;

⁴⁵ and through the descendants of Beriah:

through Heber, the Heberite clan;

through Malkiel, the Malkielite clan.

⁴⁶ (Asher had a daughter named Serah.)

⁴⁷ These were the clans of Asher; those numbered were 53,400.

⁴⁸ The descendants of Naphtali by their clans were:

through Jahzeel, the Jahzeelite clan;

through Guni, the Gunite clan;

⁴⁹ through Jezer, the Jezerite clan;

through Shillem, the Shillemite clan.

⁵⁰ These were the clans of Naphtali; those numbered were 45,400.

⁵¹ The total number of the men of Israel was 601,730.

⁵² The Lord said to Moses, ⁵³ “The land is to be allotted to them as an inheritance based on the number of names. ⁵⁴ To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one; each is to receive its inheritance according to the number of those listed. ⁵⁵ Be sure that the land is distributed by lot. What each group inherits will be according to the names for its ancestral tribe. ⁵⁶ Each inheritance is to be distributed by lot among the larger and smaller groups.”

⁵⁷ These were the Levites who were counted by their clans:

through Gershon, the Gershonite clan;

through Kohath, the Kohathite clan;

through Merari, the Merarite clan.

⁵⁸ These also were Levite clans:

the Libnite clan,

the Hebronite clan,

the Mahlite clan,

the Mushite clan,

the Korahite clan.

(Kohath was the forefather of Amram; ⁵⁹ the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, a descendant of Levi, who was born to the Levites in Egypt. To Amram she bore Aaron, Moses and their sister Miriam. ⁶⁰ Aaron was the father of Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. ⁶¹ But Nadab and Abihu died when they made an offering before the Lord with unauthorized fire.)

⁶² All the male Levites a month old or more numbered 23,000. They were not counted along with the other Israelites because they received no inheritance among them.

⁶³ These are the ones counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. ⁶⁴ Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. ⁶⁵ For the Lord had told those Israelites they would surely die in the wilderness, and not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

A few facts are evident from this passage. First, Yahweh instructs Moses and Eleazar to conduct another census and it's of the same type: of fighting men, twenty years and older. Second, all of the sums of each tribe are given below:

1.) The tribe of Reuben: 43, 730.
2.) The tribe of Simeon: 22, 200.
3.) The tribe of Gad:  40, 500.
4.) The tribe of Judah: 76, 500.
5.) The tribe of Issachar: 64, 300.
6.) The tribe of Zebulun: 60, 500.
7.) The tribe of Ephraim: 32, 500.
8.) The tribe of Manasseh: 52, 700.
9.) The tribe of Benjamin: 45, 600.
10.) The tribe of Dan: 64, 400.
11.) The tribe of Asher: 53, 400.
12.) The tribe of Naphtali: 45, 400.

The sum total of all of these numbers is 601, 730, which is exactly what is recorded in verse 51 from this passage.

Lastly, according to verse 63, these men, all 601, 730, are the ones counted on the plains of Moab; not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron earlier at Sinai. Yahweh told those Hebrews that they would die in the wilderness and not one of them was left except Caleb and Joshua.

So from this, we can only conclude that all of the Hebrews counted in the first census perished and none of them were left except for Joshua and Caleb, and that these Hebrews in the census were those who were in Egypt and saw the miraculous signs that had been performed. However, there are other passages, from Deuteronomy, that show that these fighting men were not dead, forty years later, but were alive and ready to enter the land promised to them. To show this, the first passage we need to look at comes from Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 7: 12-19, we read:

¹² If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. ¹³ He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young. ¹⁵ The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁷ You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?”

¹⁸ But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. ¹⁹ You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. ²¹ Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. ²² The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them. ²⁵ The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Regard it as vile and utterly detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.

A couple of facts are evident from this passage. First of all, Deuteronomy, as a whole, is supposedly given to all of the Hebrews while Moses is on the plains of Moab, forty years after the Hebrews supposedly left Egypt. Second, according to verse 19, the Hebrews whom God is having Moses address, saw with their own eyes the "great trials", "signs and wonders" that God did in bringing them out of Egypt and now Yahweh was promising to do it again as they entered into the land promised to them. But do we have definitive evidence that the Hebrews being addressed here are, in fact, the same Hebrews who left Egypt and saw the miraculous signs?

The answer is yes! To see the evidence, let's look at another passage, again from Deuteronomy 11: 1-12:

Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. ² Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; ³ the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; ⁴ what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them. ⁵ It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, ⁶ and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. ⁷ But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done.

⁸ Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ⁹ and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. ¹² It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

A couple of facts are evident from this passage. First, the language of this passage is similar to the previous passage. The Hebrews are being told that their children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline, majesty, might hand, and the signs performed by God in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh and his country. It was not their children who saw what God did for them in the wilderness until they arrived at the plains of Moab, but it was with their own eyes (verse 7) that saw all that Yahweh had done.

Second, it is the same people who saw all these signs with their own eyes that are entering the land to take over; it's not their children who are entering the land but them. This is strong evidence that the same Hebrews who were in Egypt, forty years prior, who saw the miraculous signs that Yahweh performed in Egypt, were the same Hebrews who were alive, forty years later, and about to enter into the promised land.

The best evidence, however, comes from Deuteronomy 29: 1-18:

These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.

² Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:

Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. ³ With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. ⁴ But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. ⁵ Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. ⁶ You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.”

⁷ When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. ⁸ We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁹ Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do. ¹⁰ All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, ¹¹ together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. ¹² You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, ¹³ to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ¹⁴ I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you ¹⁵ who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.

¹⁶ You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. ¹⁷ You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. ¹⁸ Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison

A few facts are evident from this passage. First, a covenant is being made at Moab between Yahweh and the Hebrews and this passage quoted contains the terms of this covenant. Second, as in the other passages, the Hebrews are being told that with their own eyes, they saw the great trials, wonders, and signs that Yahweh performed in Egypt. Third, Yahweh says, explicitly, that all of this is forty years later (in verse 5). Forth, all of them standing there includes "leaders", "chief men", "elders", "officials' and "all the other men of Israel"-are entering into this covenant and it is all of these men, standing there, who saw with their own eyes, and not their children's eyes, all the trials and miraculous signs that Yahweh performed in Egypt.

This establishes a discrepancy. In the passage from Numbers 14:20-35, we read that Yahweh promised that all of the men from the census, which are those who saw the miraculous signs of Yahweh, would not enter the promised land and that every one of them would die in the desert, one by one, for forty years, until they all perished and now, in Deuteronomy 29: 1-18, we now see that all of the men from the first census, who saw the miraculous signs of Yahweh, are alive and well and are entering the promised land. Thus Numbers 14: 20-35 contradicts Deuteronomy 29: 1-18. We know from the other passages in Numbers that all of the men counted in the first census did in fact die and no one survived except Joshua and Caleb and we know from the other passages quoted from Deuteronomy that the Hebrews being addressed saw the miraculous signs with their own eyes, not their children's eyes, and that Moses was recalling the events that occurred on the plains of Moab, forty years after the Hebrews left Egypt.

Another discrepancy in the Bible has been established.

The Flawed Command

                           
This blog has been arguing for and attempting to demonstrate flaws in the Bible. What is really helpful in demonstrating that flaws, such as discrepancies, exist is when the flaws exist in versions of the Bible published by conservative Christians such as the New International Version or the New American Standard Bible, which strive for accuracy from the original texts. For skeptics like myself, it's a good indication that a flaw really did exist in the autographs because while some Bible translators may be tempted to deliberately mistranslate a passage to hide something embarrassing from readers, it's very doubtful that they would deliberately mistranslate a passage in the Bible resulting in an actual error of some sort. That is why Bibles like the NIV, the NASB, and the Christian Holman Standard are often quoted on this blog.

The NIV, for example, contains a number of passages that are, arguably, mistranslated because the translators, being committed conservative Evangelicals, wanted to hide or distort the meaning of passage because it contains an error or information that is damaging to the inerrancy doctrine. Examples will be considered on this blog. However, when a passage has been translated that results in an error, readers can be confident that such a passage was accurately translated because translation teams would never deliberately mistranslate any passage that would result in an error if no such error existed in the autographs. Why dishonor God and his inerrant word like that?

A number of blog posts will quote the NIV in demonstrating that a flaw exists in the Bible. In this post, a discrepancy will be shown to exist between two accounts in the Hebrew Bible regarding a census taken by the ancient Hebrew king David. According to the passages below, David did something horribly wrong: he numbered the fighting men of Israel and Judah and because God disapproved of his act, God sent a plague that lasted a few days until David confessed his sin and asked God to stop. The two passages to be examined come from 2nd Samuel 24 and 1st Chronicles 21. According to 2 Samuel 24: 1-17, we read:

Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

² So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

³ But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”
⁴ The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

⁵ After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. ⁶ They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. ⁷ Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.

⁸ After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹ Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.

¹⁰ David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

¹¹ Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: ¹² “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

¹³ So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
¹⁴ David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. ¹⁶ When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷ When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

A few facts are evident from this passage. First, notice that it is Yahweh's anger that burns against Israel. Second, notice that verse one says of Yahweh, that "he incited David against them, saying...". In other words, Yahweh incited David against Israel and Yahweh told David to count the fighting men of Israel and Judah. Third, David was conscience-stricken and realizes that he has sinned and the census was very foolish. This is despite David being commanded by Yahweh to do it. Forth, After the plague was sent, David confesses his sin to God and complains of the injustice of the plague.

However, in 1st Chronicles, we read of a different take on this story. in 1st Chronicles 21: 1-17, we read:

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. ² So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”

³ But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

⁴ The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. ⁵ Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.

⁶ But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. ⁷ This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.

⁸ Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

⁹ The Lord said to Gad, David’s seer, ¹⁰ “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

¹¹ So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: ¹² three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

¹³ David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁴ So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. ¹⁵ And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁶ David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn
sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.

¹⁷ David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people."

A few facts are evident from this passage. First, it is Satan and not Yahweh who incited David to take the census. Second, in verse seven, we learn that this command was evil in the sight of God. Third, we learn from this passage that God punished Israel because of what David did, and David later complains because of the injustice, in verse 17. David acknowledges his wrong-doing in both verse eight and 17 and protests because God is gratuitously punishing the Hebrews.

A few facts can be inferred from these passages quoted above. First, a discrepancy exists. In 2 Samuel 24, it is God who orders David to sin by having him take the census and in 1 Chronicles 21, Satan has David take the census. This seems confirmed by the fact that, in 1 Chronicles 21:7, God considered the command to be evil. The conclusion is that God commanded David to sin. Third, instead of punishing David for having committed the sin, God takes the punishment out on the innocent people of Israel. According to both passages, 70,000 Hebrews died for something they didn't deserve.

Believers, of course, will argue that no discrepancy exists. They will argue that both passages are true with respect to Yahweh and Satan. God permissively willed Satan to command David to take the census but didn't approve of David's sin in doing so. But this isn't what the passages say. In 2 Samuel 24, it is Yahweh who verbally gives the command. In fact, in 1 Chronicles 21, Satan doesn't say anything. Rather he just incites David to take the census. And 1 Chronicles 21 says that God considered the command to be evil. So, God commanded David to do evil, which an all-good and morally perfect being cannot do.

What is just as bad is the problem of Yahweh's injustice; he inflicts suffering on innocent people who did nothing to deserve being killed in a plague. Why would an all-good and morally perfect being punish people for something they didn't do?

This is just one example of a discrepancy that can be demonstrated with the NIV. More posts will be made which show flaws exist in the Bible, using the NIV.

The Denials of Peter

The late Evangelical author Gleason Archer once wrote a book titled The New Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. This was his own "scholarly" attempt at defending the Bible against allegations of error. While some of his explanations seem reasonable, Archer gave a number of explanations that were ridiculous and far-fetched. His book relied primarily on two different translations of the Bible: the New American Standard Bible and The New International Version. In his later years, he gave his endorsement to another translation of the Bible called The International Standard Version, which even he believed succeeded where other translations didn't. On the website for the ISV, Archer is quoted as saying:

"A truly excellent version, combining both dignity and fine taste. Personally I think it has succeeded in achieving what the most recent publications have attempted. Hearty congratulations. This should be adopted for Sunday School purposes, and easily equals the NIV and NAS, so far as I have sampled it."

This can be put to the test, actually. To put it to the test, why not select several passages from the New Testament gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and see how "truly excellent" this version is. An excellent problem in the gospels is with regards to the accounts of Peter's denial. That Peter would deny that he knew Jesus three times is predicted. For instance, in the gospel of Matthew 26: 31-35, we read:

31 Then Jesus told them, “All of you will turn against me this very night, because it is written,

‘I will strike the shepherd,

and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

32 However, after I have been raised, I will go to Galilee ahead of you.”

33 But Peter told him, “Even if everyone else turns against you, I certainly won’t!”

34 Jesus told him, “I tell you with certainty, before a rooster crows this very night, you will deny me three times.”

35 Peter told him, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the disciples said the same thing.

So, here is a prediction, made by Jesus, that Peter will deny him three times; I have highlighted it in bold for emphasis. So, how did Jesus' prediction pan out? It depends on which gospel one reads. Since Archer considered the ISV to be a "truly excellent version", why not read each of the gospel accounts? In each of the four gospels, I will highlight, in bold, parts of the passages worth paying special attention to for emphasis. We can start with Matthew 26: 69-75:

69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard when a servant girl came up to him and said, “You, too, were with Jesus the Galilean.”

70 But he denied it in front of them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he exclaimed.
71 As he went out to the gateway, another woman saw him and told those who were there, “This man was with Jesus from Nazareth.”

72 Again he denied it and swore with an oath, “I don’t know the man!”

73 After a little while, the people who were standing there came up and told Peter, “Obviously you’re also one of them, because your accent gives you away.”

74 Then he began to curse violently. “I don’t know the man!” he swore solemnly. Just then a rooster crowed. 75 Peter remembered the words of Jesus when he said, “Before a rooster crows, you’ll deny me three times.” Then he went outside and cried bitterly.

Notice a couple of facts from this passage: first, Peter is sitting outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came up to him; he denied it to her in front of everyone. Second, he left the courtyard and went into the gateway where another woman saw him and said something very similar. Peter denied it and a short while later, the people standing there started accusing him of being a disciple of Jesus, to which he cursed as he denied it.

So, how about Mark? In Mark 14: 66-72, we read:

66 While Peter was down in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s servant girls came by. 67 When she saw Peter warming himself, she glared at him and said, “You, too, were with Jesus from Nazareth.”

68 But he denied it, saying, “I don’t know—or even understand—what you’re talking about!” Then he went out into the entryway. Just then a rooster crowed.

69 The servant girl saw him and again told those who were standing around, “This man is one of them!” 70 Again he denied it.

After a little while, the people who were standing there began to say to Peter again, “Obviously you’re one of them, because you are a Galilean!”

71 Then he began to invoke a divine curse and to swear with an oath, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about!” 72 Just then a rooster crowed a second time.

Peter remembered that Jesus told him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” Then he broke down and cried.

Notice a few facts from this passage. As in Matthew 26, Peter is in the courtyard and a servant girl comes by and goes up to Peter. She accuses Peter of being with Jesus like she does in Matthew's gospel. Peter denies it like he does in Matthew. Second, like in Matthew's gospel, Peter leaves the courtyard and goes out into the entryway. However, this time, the same servant girl sees him and tells everyone around that Peter is one of them-a disciple of Jesus. Peter denies it. Third, like in Matthew's gospel, Peter denies being a disciple of Jesus to the group.

However, when we get to Luke's gospel, we see more differences. In Luke 22: 54-62, we read:

54 Then they arrested him, led him away, and brought him to the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance. 55 When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had taken their seats, Peter, too, sat down among them. 56 A servant girl saw him sitting by the fire, stared at him, and said, “This man was with him, too.”

57 But he denied it, “I don’t know him, woman!” he responded.

58 A little later, a man looked at him and said, “You are one of them, too.”

But Peter said, “Mister, I am not!”

59 About an hour later, another man emphatically asserted, “This man was certainly with him, because he is a Galilean!”

60 But Peter said, “Mister, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just then, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.

61 Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. And Peter remembered the word from the Lord, and how he had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 So he went outside and cried bitterly.

Notice a few facts from this passage. First, as in Matthew and Mark, Peter is in the middle of the courtyard when a servant girl sees him sitting there and goes up to him and identifies him, implicitly, as a disciple of Jesus. As in Matthew and Mark, Peter denies it. Second, for Peter's second denial, instead of a servant girl accusing him of being a disciple of Jesus, a man accuses him and he denies it; he even identifies the person's gender as he denies it. Third, for the final denial, another man accuses Peter of being a disciple of Jesus and Peter denies it.

We can see some discrepancies. In Matthew and Mark, the only discrepancy was that Matthew had two different servant girls accuse Peter of being a disciple of Jesus while Mark has the same servant girl accuse him. However, in Luke's account, a man accuses Peter of being a disciple of Jesus instead of a servant girl for the second denial. Another discrepancy is that while in Matthew and Mark, Peter denies being a disciple of Jesus to a small crowd of people standing near him, in Luke's gospel, Peter makes the denial to a single man, not a small crowd.

How about John's gospel? In John 18: 15-27, we read:

15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Since the other disciple was known to the high priest, he accompanied Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. 16 Peter, however, stood outside the gate. So this other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter inside. 17 The young woman at the gate asked Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples, too, are you?”

“I am not,” he replied.

18 Meanwhile, the servants and officers were standing around a charcoal fire they had built and were warming themselves because it was cold. Peter was also standing with them, keeping himself warm.

Notice here what is going on. We encounter another discrepancy. In the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), the servant girl came up to Peter while he was sitting around a fire in the middle of the courtyard. In this passage, the servant girl is not in the courtyard and neither is Peter. The young lady is at the gate and she asks Peter while he is passing through the gate. This is the first discrepancy. The narrative continues as the high priest is questioning Jesus.

19 Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his own teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogue or in the Temple, where all Jews meet together, and I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you question me? Question those who heard what I said. These are the people who know what I said.”

22 When he said this, one of the officers standing nearby slapped Jesus on the face and demanded, “Is that any way to answer the high priest?”

23 Jesus answered him, “If I have said anything wrong, tell me what it was. But if I have told the truth, why do you hit me?” 24 Then Annas sent him, with his hands tied, to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now the narrative resumes with Peter in the courtyard:

25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. Some people asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples, too, are you?”

He denied it by saying, “I am not!”

26 Then one of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “I saw you in the garden with Jesus, didn’t I?” 27 Peter again denied it, and immediately a rooster crowed.

Notice what is seen here. Simon Peter is standing and warming himself and some people ask him if he is a disciple of Jesus. Peter denies it and then, later, one of the high priest's servants asks Peter if he saw him in the garden with Jesus and Peter denies it. Here we see another discrepancy. In the synoptics, Peter is in the courtyard for the first denial and leaves it while in John, Peter is walking through the entryway where the first denial occurs and is in the courtyard for the second denial and possibly the third. In Matthew and Mark, a servant girl makes the accusation for the second denial, while Luke has a single man do it and John has a crowd around the fire in the courtyard ask Peter. In Matthew and Mark, a crowd of nearby people ask Peter if he is a disciple, while in Luke, it is a man, and in John, it is just one person, not a small crowd.

As we can see, the ISV contains quite a few discrepancies. Archer wrote a book trying to "explain" these discrepancies yet he believed that the ISV was a "truly excellent version". It may be a truly excellent version but, it is also a truly flawed version as well.

A Careful Look At The Perfect Harmony Doctrine

In the July-September, 1994 issue of The Skeptical Review, there appeared an article titled "Another Flaw in the Perfect-Harmony Theory". This article, written by Farrell Till, argued that there existed a discrepancy between the book of Jeremiah and 2 Kings. The article quoted Jeremiah 18:5-8.

According to Jeremiah 18:5-10, we read:

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

So what this passage is saying is that if Yahweh announces, at any time, that a nation or kingdom is to uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, and that nation repents of its evil then Yahweh will relent. And if a nation is to be built up and planted, Yahweh will reconsider the good that he intended for it if this nation does evil.

The problem was, according to Till, that this passage is clearly wrong. Judah had repented of its evils in the time of King Josiah yet even though Judah repented, Yahweh was still going to destroy it. This was despite the fact that Josiah devoted himself heart and soul to following Yahweh and his law and had Judah and all of the men of Jerusalem do the same. While I agree that Till was right and that the story of Josiah and his reforms in 2 Kings did nothing to avert the destruction that Yahweh had promised even though Jeremiah 18 promised otherwise, I believe that Till's case could've been made much stronger than even he seemed to realize. To do this, I will quote from Till's article and then analyze passages from Jeremiah that make Till's case stronger than he might have imagined.

Here is what Till wrote in the article referenced above:

"In one particular case, however, he refused to relent for a people whose penitence and religious reformation were perhaps unparalleled in biblical history. When Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, assumed the kingship in Judah, he "did evil in the sight of Yahweh" (2 Kings 21:2). He rebuilt the altars of Baal that his father had destroyed, offered his own son in pagan sacrifice, and "did much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger" (21:3-6). He even put graven images in the temple (21:5,7).

"So provoked was Yahweh that he vowed to destroy the nation of Judah:

And Yahweh spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, "Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says Yahweh God of Israel, `Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day'" (2 Kings 21:10-15).

"Manasseh's evil ways continued after the prophetic judgment was pronounced. He "shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another" (21:16), and then he died, apparently a natural death, and "rested with his fathers" and was buried in the garden of Uzza (21:18).

"Manasseh's son Amon then became king, but he was assassinated after reigning only two years. In those two years, however, he carried on the tradition of his father and "did evil in the sight of Yahweh" (21:20) and worshiped and served the idols his father had installed in the land (v:21). Then on Amon's death, his son Josiah was made king and reigned for 31 years (22:1).

"It was in the reign of Josiah that the phenomenal religious reforms previously mentioned occurred. The "Book of the law," presumably lost for some time, was discovered in the temple during renovation work and was presented to Josiah in the 18th year of his reign (22:3-10). Upon hearing the book read in his presence, king Josiah, realizing that the commandments of the law had not been observed by his people, rent his clothes in a gesture of penitence (v:11). He called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem and read the "Book of the Covenant" to them (23:1-2). He then swore to observe the commandments and statutes of the book "with all his heart and all his soul" (v:3).

"There followed, as I said, a religious reformation that was unparalleled in biblical history. Josiah ordered the removal of all relics of Baal from the temple and burned them outside Jerusalem "in the fields of Kidron" and carried their ashes to Bethel (v:4). He removed from office all the idolatrous priests who had been ordained by his predecessors (v:5) and burned their wooden images. He tore down all the ritual booths in the pagan "high places" and cast out their priests from Geba to Beersheba (vv:7-8), put an end to human sacrifices to the god Molech (v:10), and destroyed many other pagan worship sites too numerous to detail (vv:11-15). He even carried his reforms into the northern kingdom of Israel, where he destroyed all the pagan shrines and executed all the priests "of the high places" (vv:18-20).

"On his return to Jerusalem, he ordered a Passover celebration the likes of which "surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah" (vv:21-22). He ordered an end to the cultic practices of mediums and spiritualists and the worship of "household gods and idols" (v:24). The story of Josiah's reforms ends with this statement: "Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him" (v:25). David was a man after Yahweh's own heart (1 Sam. 13:14), who had done "that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh and turned not aside from anything he [Yahweh] commanded him all the days of his life" (1 Kings 15:5), so if Josiah's godliness exceeded even David's, his personal character has to stand without parallel in the Old Testament.

"One would think, then, that if any nation were ever entitled to have Yahweh "relent" of the disaster he had pronounced upon it, Judah under the reign of Josiah would certainly have qualified. But it didn't. After all the reforms of Josiah had been described in detail, the writer of 2 Kings made this astonishing announcement:

Nevertheless Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. And Yahweh said, "I will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, `My name shall be there'" (23:26-27).

"From this one can only conclude that it wasn't always true that when Yahweh spoke "concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it" that he would "relent of the disaster" that he had thought to bring upon it if the nation turned from its evil. Judah certainly turned from its evil, in terms of the biblical sense of evil, in the reign of Josiah, yet despite this national repentance, Yahweh refused to relent of the disaster he had pronounced upon it. One chapter later, the writer of 2 Kings concluded his book with an account of Judah's destruction by the army of Nebuchadnezzar. The repentance of an entire nation brought no mercy from the infinitely just Yahweh. So what does this do to the claim that the Bible is so unified in its themes that only divine inspiration can explain its amazing harmony? "

I agree with Till. However, his case could be made much stronger. Heck, his case can be made very strong and completely without Jeremiah 18: 5-10. Let's look at Jeremiah 25: 1-14:

25 The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 2 So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: 3 For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.

4 And though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. 5 They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors for ever and ever. 6 Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”

7 “But you did not listen to me,” declares the Lord, “and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.”

8 Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, 9 I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. 10 I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever. 13 I will bring on that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. 14 They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

A few facts are evident from this passage. First, according to the beginning of this passage, Jeremiah was giving this message from Yahweh to all of the people of Judah and everyone in Jerusalem in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah. So, this message is being given to all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the people of Judah after Josiah's reign had come to an end. Second, according to verse 3, Yahweh has had Jeremiah repeatedly speak to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem but they haven't listened. Third, Jeremiah isn't the first prophet to warn the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to repent; they have been sent prophets before and have been warned before to repent of their evil ways. Another passage can be found in Jeremiah 26: 1-16:

26 Early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the Lord: 2 “This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. 4 Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, 5 and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse among all the nations of the earth.’”

7 The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the Lord. 8 But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! 9 Why do you prophesy in the Lord’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

10 When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the Lord and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the Lord’s house. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!”

12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13 Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. 15 Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”

16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man should not be sentenced to death! He has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”

From this passage, more than a few facts are evident. First, Jeremiah is issuing this prophetic warning after the reign of Josiah. Second, like the passage quoted above from Jeremiah 25, this warning is directed to the people of Judah. Third, in verse 3, Yahweh promises that if the people of Judah listen, he will relent and not bring the promised destruction. Forth, like in the passage from Jeremiah 25, Yahweh states that he has warned the people again and again but they haven't listened. Fifth, according to verses 12 and 13, Jeremiah warned all of the officials and people that Yahweh sent him to prophesy against them and warns them to repent and tells them of Yahweh's promise to relent if they reform their ways and obey Yahweh.

But why should they trust Yahweh? Yahweh didn't relent in the time of Josiah. Even though Josiah introduced reforms and turned his heart towards Yahweh, Yahweh didn't relent. Till quoted 2 Kings 23: 26-27, and I am quoting it again (New American Standard Bible):

²⁶ However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. ²⁷ The Lord said, “I will remove Judah also from My sight, as I have removed Israel. And I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the temple of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”

And later in 2 Kings24: 1-4, we read (New International Version):

During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled. ² The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets. ³ Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord’s command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, ⁴ including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.

So the destruction of Judah happened because Yahweh commanded it to happen on an account of Manasseh and his sins. Manasseh shed innocent blood and filled Jerusalem with it and Yahweh was not willing to forgive. This passage confirms 2 Kings 23: 26-27; both state that it was because of Manasseh's sins, particularly the shedding of innocent blood in Jerusalem that brought all of this on Judah and Yahweh was not wiling to forgive any of it.

Till referenced the Bible above to argue that Josiah turned to Yahweh with all of his heart. But what about the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem? Did they repent or was it just Josiah? Inerrantists might argue that this was the case; Jeremiah is accurate; the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem never repented; it was only Josiah who repented.  Actually, according to the Bible, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem repented. According to 2 Kings 23: 1-3 (New International Version)

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ² He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. ³ The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.

According to this passage, Josiah stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of Yahweh and then "all of the people pledged themselves to the covenant". The people who pledged themselves to the covenant were "the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets-all the people from the least to the greatest." There can be no doubt, then, that it wasn't merely Josiah, but all of the people whose hearing that he read all of the words of the "Book of the Covenant".

As a last ditch effort to avoid a discrepancy, inerrantists might argue that the passages from Jeremiah 25 and 26 aren't meant to be taken literally. Maybe when Yahweh says in Jeremiah 26: 1-6 that the people of Judah have never listened, despite being repeatedly warned, it was meant to be hyperbole. Maybe the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem repented once or twice but that was it so passages like these contain hyperbole:

26 Early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the Lord: 2 “This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. 4 Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, 5 and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse among all the nations of the earth.’”

But is this hyperbole? When according to Jeremiah 25-26, the people have never listened and that Yahweh has sent prophet after prophet, when Jeremiah being the latest, isn't this just an exaggeration?

Actually, there is strong evidence from Jeremiah 35 that the statements in bold from Jeremiah 25 and 26, quoted above, were meant to be taken literally. In Jeremiah 35: 1-19, we read:

35 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord during the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: 2 “Go to the Rekabite family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the house of the Lord and give them wine to drink.”

3 So I went to get Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons—the whole family of the Rekabites. 4 I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God. It was next to the room of the officials, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper. 5 Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, “Drink some wine.”

6 But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. 7 Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.’ 8 We have obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine 9 or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. 10 We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab commanded us.

11 But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this land, we said, ‘Come, we must go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian and Aramean armies.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”
12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: 13 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘Will you not learn a lesson and obey my words?’ declares the Lord. 14 ‘Jehonadab son of Rekab ordered his descendants not to drink wine and this command has been kept. To this day they do not drink wine, because they obey their forefather’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not obeyed me. 15 Again and again I sent all my servants the prophets to you. They said, “Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions; do not follow other gods to serve them. Then you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you have not paid attention or listened to me. 16 The descendants of Jehonadab son of Rekab have carried out the command their forefather gave them, but these people have not obeyed me.’

17 “Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.’”

18 Then Jeremiah said to the family of the Rekabites, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have obeyed the command of your forefather Jehonadab and have followed all his instructions and have done everything he ordered.’ 19 Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jehonadab son of Rekab will never fail to have a descendant to serve me.’”

A few facts are evident from this passage. First, Jeremiah is instructed to go to the whole family of the Rekabites and he pours them wine and tells them to drink. Second, they replied that they do not drink because their ancestor, Jehonadab, gave them the order that they must never drink wine. According to verse 8, the whole family hadn't drunken any wine since having been given this command. Third, Yahweh instructs Jeremiah, in verse 12, to go to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem to follow the example of the Rekabites. According to verse 14, Yahweh states that Jehonadab ordered his descendants not to drink wine and this command has been kept, even "to this day they do not drink wine" and Yahweh notes that the people have not paid any attention or listened to him despite being repeatedly warned.

This demonstrates that the statements in Jeremiah 25-26 are literally true; if it was just hyperbole, then the Rekabites wouldn't have been the best parallel to use. If the statements that the people of Judah and Jerusalem's inhabitants never listened or paid any attention to Yahweh, and hence never repented, are all hyperbolic, then why didn't Yahweh have Jeremiah remind them of their repentance in the days of Josiah when Josiah had everyone in Jerusalem (meaning all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people from Judah, and their elders) pledge themselves to the covenant? This would have been a much better comparison. That the reforms of Josiah, including having everyone repent and pledge themselves to the covenant, aren't mentioned in Jeremiah 35 and the Rekabites are mentioned as an excellent example of faithfulness goes to show that the statements found in Jeremiah 25-26, quoted and highlighted in bold, above, are literally true statements.

Thus, Till was right. A proven discrepancy is shown to exist and the doctrine of perfect harmony of the Bible, that the Bile is the "inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God" is shown not to be true.

The Time of the Exodus

In my first post for The New Skeptical Review, I examined a discrepancy between two different decalogues, with the Hebrew Bible claiming that both are "the Ten Commandments." There exists quite a number of discrepancies located in the Pentateuch, which are simply the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Christian's "Old Testament". Another excellent example of a discrepancy concerns the Exodus and its timing. That the Hebrews did leave Egypt seems quite certain from the biblical texts. However, when a careful reader asks "When did the Hebrews leave Egypt?", the answer depends on which texts one reads. According to Exodus 12, the Hebrews were commanded by Moses to stay in their houses over night and not to leave until the next morning. Exodus 12: 1-32 (New American Standard Bible) is worth quoting in full:

Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. 4 Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. 7 Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. 10 And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.

11 Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you.

17 You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. 20 You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. 22 You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

23 "For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you. 24 And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. 25 When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’” And the people bowed low and worshiped.

28 Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

29 Now it came about at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. 30 Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead. 31 Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the Lord, as you have said. 32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also.”

From this passage, a few facts are evident. Yahweh commands the Hebrews to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb and not leave any of it until morning, which indicates that Yahweh desired that the Hebrews stay in their house until morning. This is indicated in the second paragraph which I highlighted in bold. Moses also commanded the Hebrews to do exactly what Yahweh instructed them to do and in verse 22, Moses also told the Hebrews to stay in their houses until morning. In verse 28, the Hebrews went and did exactly as Yahweh commanded them through Moses and Aaron.

Therefore, from verse 28, we can only conclude that the Hebrews made the sacrifice as instructed, ate the meal as instructed, and then stayed in their houses until morning as instructed.

That the Hebrews waited until morning, the next day, is confirmed by Numbers 33. According to Numbers 33: 1-4, we read the following:

These are the journeys of the sons of Israel, by which they came out from the land of Egypt by their armies, under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. 2 Moses recorded their starting places according to their journeys by the command of the Lord, and these are their journeys according to their starting places. 3 They journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the next day after the Passover the sons of Israel started out boldly in the sight of all the Egyptians, 4 while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn whom the Lord had struck down among them. The Lord had also executed judgments on their gods.

According to this passage, the Hebrews started out boldly in the sight of all of the Egyptians on the fifteenth day of the first month. The fifteenth day was the next day after the passover and, in bold highlighted above, the Hebrews "started out boldly" on their way out of Egypt. This confirms what Exodus 12 says above.

However, in Deuteronomy 16, we read something different. Deuteronomy 6:1-8 reads as follows:

“Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 You shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name. 3 You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 4 For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning. 5 You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns which the Lord your God is giving you; 6 but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt. 7 You shall cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. 8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates verse 6 even more accurately:

"6You must only sacrifice the Passover animal at the place where Yahweh your God chooses to have His name dwell. Do this in the evening as the sun sets at the same time of day you departed from Egypt."

In this passage, verse 6 explicitly states that the Passover sacrifice is to be made in the evening at sunset and that sunset is "the time that you came out of Egypt". This flatly contradicts Exodus 12: 28, which states that the Hebrews obeyed Moses and Aaron's command to stay in their houses overnight until morning and Numbers 33: 3, which confirms that that the Hebrews stayed in their houses overnight and didn't leave until the morning. So, which is it? Did the Hebrews leave Egypt at sunset or did they leave start out to leave the following day?

(Editor's note: I am greatly indebted to both biblical scholar Dr. Steve DiMattei and John Kessler for the information that went into this post. Even though I very often disagree with Dr. DiMattei and find myself seldom agreeing with him, this is one of these times where I think he is absolutely right).