In 1936 a French archaeological expedition to Mari, the capital of a kingdom on the Middle Euphrates in Syria, uncovered a vast archive of some 25,000 cuneiform tablets. Examining this huge corpus of Old Babylonian documents, mostly from the Mari palace, Malamat provides evidence of how the tablets reveal a vivid picture of Mesopotamia at a time when the Israelites were in their earliest formative stage. The broad spectrum of the Mari documents, from exotic prophecies to political intrigue, provides innumerable opportunities for comparative research into early Israel, the Bible, and Biblical...

The book holds 26 chapters encompassing the history of Israel from its very beginnings up to the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem (586 BC). The successive parts are (1) The Dawn of Israel, dealing with the Israelite proto-history, Mari and early Israel as well as the tribal societies and genealogies. (2) Forming a Nation, The Exodus and Conquest of Canaan, the period of the Judges and the charismatic nature of the Judges, the Danite migration. (3) The Rise of the Davidic Dynasty, a political view of the kingdom of David and Solomon, the diplomatic, international marriages of the...