Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
The Angel of Destruction kills 180,000 Assyrian troops in 2 Kings. But according to the Greek historian Herodotus, some mischievous mice actually ate through the Assyrian army's sword straps and belts, and got them killed in a very similar massacre in Egypt. (Source.)
Jehu looks like a pretty tough guy in the Bible. But archaeologists have unearthed a carving that depicts him in a more humble position: bowing down to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, after being defeated. (Source.)
Whereas 2 Kings says that God moved back the sun for Hezekiah, an eccentric twentieth-century author Immanuel Velikovsky claimed this effect on the sun-dial really could've happened. Only, it would have been caused by the planet Venus settling into its orbit. (This is not, uh, widely accepted.) (Source.)
2 Kings mentions and condemns the worship of the goddess Asherah. But it doesn't mention that she was apparently originally worshipped as a consort of Yahweh, the God of Israel. (Source.)