Table of Contents

Abbreviations; Preface; Part I: Introduction; 1. Principles and Method of Investigating the History of Ancient Israel; Part II: History; 2. Second Millennium Background (2000-1200 BCE); 3. Iron 1 (1200-1000): Early Settlements; 4. Iron 2A (1000-900): Beginnings of Israel as a State; 5. Iron 2B (900-720): End of Israel and Rise of Judah; 6. Iron 2C (720-586): Peak and Decline of Judah; 7. Epilogue: the 'Exile' (586-539); Part III: Conclusions; 8. An Overview: What We Know of Israelite and Judahite History Indices Modern Authors Citations Subjects.

About the Author

Lester L. Grabbe, MA(Pasadena), PhD(Claremont), DD(Hull), is Professor Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull, UK.

Reviews

'The study of the history of ancient Israel has become in recent years a difficult and confusing arena, full of loud and discordant voices and yet crying out for a serious and substantial guide to all the noise. Lester Grabbe, one of the most prolific scholars in the field, offers in Ancient Israel" a clear and tightly packed review of all the essential issues in reconstructing Israelite history. Particularly striking is his detailed appreciation of the archaeological data, without which, as he demonstrates, a history of ancient Israel would suffer gross distortion and incompleteness. At the same time, Grabbe remains acutely aware of the Hebrew Bible and the challenge of using it as a source on ancient Israel. His summary lists of what, in the light of critical analysis and comparison of the non-Biblical evidence, may be historically accurate, or probable, or inaccurate in the Biblical accounts is only one of the many pluses in this valuable book.'
Peter Machinist, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Harvard University, USA

"This book admirably fills a gap in the scholarly discussion of the history of Ancient Israel. Lester Grabbe brings forward all of the relevant evidence structures, epigraphy, inscriptions, material remains, literary records and walks the reader carefully through all the aspects of them. The vast bibliography running 54 pages! identifies the in situ origins of the material and the subsequent scholarly discussions. The book, then, serves as a vademecum for historical analysis, and it can serve as a model for illustrating how historical inquiry of any subject should be conducted."
-Leo Madden, Catholic Books Review