While the religion of the Bible has long fascinated readers and scholars, the Israelite attitude toward death remains clouded in mystery even though certain mortuary customs have been passed intact through the ages into modern Judaism. The inherently conservative nature of burial practices and related beliefs explains why, despite being vilified by kings, a Cult of the Dead survived for centuries among the common people. Rachel Hallote's fascinating book examines the archaeological, literary, and artistic evidence for the burial practices of biblical times, their antecedents and successors....