For example, 2 Kings 18. 10 states that
Samaria was taken in the sixth year of Hezekiah, king of Judah; verse
13 contains the statement that in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah,
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came against Jerusalem. Now, the date of
the capture of Samaria is definitely fixed by the Assyrian
inscriptions. The city fell either in the closing days of B.C. 722, or
the beginning of B.C. 721. Assuming that it was in 722, the fourteenth
year of Hezekiah would be B.C. 714. But Sennacherib did not become
king of Assyria until B.C. 705, while his attack upon Judah and
Jerusalem was not undertaken until B.C. 701, hence there would seem to
be an inaccuracy somewhere. Certainly, since the primary purpose of
the writings is not historical, but religious, these inaccuracies do
not affect the real value of the book. Nevertheless, their presence
shows that the writings cannot be looked upon as coming in all their
parts directly from {24} God. At some point man must have stepped in
and left marks of his limitations.

More serious perhaps may appear the incompleteness and imperfection of
the religious and ethical conceptions, especially in the older
portions. Read, for example, the twenty-fourth chapter of Second
Samuel. Jehovah is there represented as causing David to number the
people, and when he carried out the command Jehovah was angry and sent
a pestilence which destroyed, not David, but seventy thousand innocent
men. Can any Christian believe that the God of love revealed by Jesus
ever acted in such arbitrary manner? No! The trouble lies with the
author of the passage, who, on account of his relatively low conception
of the character of Jehovah, gave an erroneous interpretation of the
events recorded. A later writer, who had a truer conception of the God
of Israel, saw that a mistake had been made; therefore he introduced
Satan as the one who caused the numbering (1 Chron. 21. 1). Or take
the twenty-second chapter of First Kings, especially verses 19 to 23.
Four hundred prophets of Jehovah urge Ahab to go up against
Ramoth-gilead. On the advice of the king of Judah, Micaiah is called,
who announces, after some hesitation, that the expedition will end
disastrously. He then explains how it happened that the other prophets
told a falsehood: {25} "Therefore hear thou the word of Jehovah: I saw
Jehovah sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by
him on his right hand and on his left. A