A History of Ancient Israel and Judah Book

This book is a ponderous, prodigious scholarly text that examines the chronological history of Israel and Judah from its beginnings in the Iron Age, through the Davidic dynasty, the Omride and Jehudic dynasties, the Assyrian conquest, until the Neo-Babylonian Conquest under Cyrus. If one is approaching this subject from an interest in Middle Eastern archaeology and antiquity, the text's incorporation and explanations of the various peoples and empires that influenced and interacted with Israel, in an attempt to place Israel's history within the local contexts, will leave one satisfied. If one is approaching from an interest in biblical rectitude, the book's balanced writing philosophy of starting from the traditional approach, of using biblical chronological list of kings, then revising or evaluating the history according to the proof or lack thereof from archaeology, epigraphy, r chronology will leave one satisfied. I learned a lot about both the area and the kings from this book, in particular, how the House of David (and Solomon) were aggressively built up by the biblical writers into visions of majesty and munificence, from foundations of mediocrity (in terms of achievements) and terribleness(in terms of using fellow Israelites as forced labor), in order to fit a narrative of legend for the makers of the Jerusalem Temple and founders of the Royal Zionic cult.