Judah in the Biblical Period: Historical, Archaeological, and Biblical Studies Selected Essays (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fr die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 497)

The collection of essays in this book represents more than twenty years of research on the history and archeology of Judah, as well as the study of the Biblical literature written in and about the period that might be called the “Age of Empires”. This 600-year-long period, when Judah was a vassal Assyrian, Egyptian and Babylonian kingdom and then a province under the consecutive rule of the Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires, was the longest and the most influential in Judean history and historiography. The administration that was shaped and developed during this period, the rural economy, the settlement pattern and the place of Jerusalem as a small temple, surrounded by a small settlement of (mainly) priests, Levites and other temple servants, characterize Judah during most of its history. This is the formative period when most of the Hebrew Bible was written and edited, when the main features of Judaism were shaped and when Judean cult and theology were created and developed. The 36 papers contained in this book present a broad picture of the Hebrew Bible against the background of the Biblical history and the archeology of Judah throughout the six centuries of the “Age of Empires”. Preface 8 Contents 14 Sources of the Papers 18 Part A: Judah under Assyrian Rule 22 The Kingdom of Judah under Assyrian Rule 22 The Changing Faces of Kingship in Judah under Assyrian Rule 24 The Long Seventh Century BCE: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives 42 The Time and Origin of the Volute-Capitals from Judah, Moab and Ammon 68 Judah under Assyrian Rule and the Early Phase of Stamping Jar Handles 92 The lmlk and ‘Private’ Stamp Impressions from Tel Beth-Shemesh: An Added Dimension to the Late 8th and Early 7th Century BCE History of the Site 108 Part B: Judah and Its Surroundings under Babylonian Rule 115 The Province of Judah under Babylonian Rule 115 Shedding New Light on the Dark Years of the “Exilic Period”: New Studies, Further Elucidation, and Some Questions Regarding the Archaeology of Judah as an “Empty Land” 116 Nebuchadrezzar’s Policy in ‘Ḫattu-Land’ and the Fate of the Kingdom of Judah 138 Judah, Jerusalem and the Temple (586–539 BCE) 156 Demographic Changes in Judah between the Seventh and the Fifth Centuries BCE 168 The “Riddle of Ramat Raḥel” and the Problem of Identifying the Material Culture of the Babylonian and Early Persian Periods 210 Ammon in Transition from Vassal Kingdom to Babylonian Province 216 Was there a ‘Royal Estate’ at En-Gedi during the Late Iron Age and the Persian Period? 232 Part C: Judah and Its Surroundings in the Persian Period 243 The Borders of the Province of Judah in the Persian Period and the Districts System. 243 Persian-Period Judah − A New Perspective 244 Achaemenid Imperial Policy, Settlement Processes in Palestine, and the Status of Jerusalem in the Middle of the Fifth Century BCE 264 Persian Period Finds from Jerusalem: Facts and Interpretations 286 The Rural Economy of Judah during the Persian Period and the Settlement History of the District System 304 Material Culture, Administration and Economy in Judah during the Persian Period: The Role of the Jerusalem Temple 326 Judah during the Transition between the Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods: Regional Processes 350 Part D: Studies on the History and Archeology of Jerusalem 377 Map of Temple Mount 377 Jerusalem as a Symbol and in Reality 378 Between Archaeology and Text: A Reevaluation of the Development Process of Jerusalem in the Persian Period 390 Jerusalem between Two Periods of Greatness: The Size and Status of the City in the Babylonian, Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods 406 Part E: Studies on the Region of Benjamin and Its Surroundings 419 Map of Judah 419 Benjamin in Retrospective: Stages in the Creation of the Territory of the Benjamin Tribe 420 The History of the Benjamin Region Under Babylonian Rule 442 Bethel Revisited 472 The Origins of the Jewish Population in Modiʿin and its Surroundings 486 Part F: Biblical Studies 514 Abraham between Mamre and Jerusalem 514 Sukkot in the Pentateuch and in Ezra 3 and Nehemiah 8 532 On Cash-Boxes and Finding or Not Finding Books: Jehoash’s and Josiah’s Decisions to Repair the Temple 546 “Jehoiakim Slept with his Fathers ...” (II Kings 24:6) – Did He? 560 On the Titles ʿbd yhwh (‘servant of Yhwh’) and ʿbd hmlk (‘servant of the King’) 576 Nehemiah 3: Sources, Composition, and Purpose 590 Literary and Ideological Aspects of Nehemiah 11 612 From Geba to Beersheba: A Further Consideration 630 The “Founding Story” and “Bill of Rights” of the Family of Barzillai the Gileadite in Jerusalem 642 “Here is a Man Whose Name is Ṣēmaḥ” (Zechariah 6:12) 656 ʿibrî, Hebrew - in Diachronic Perspective as a Linkage Term between the ‘Diaspora Novellas’ of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses 666 Abbreviations 674 Bibliography 678 Index of Sources 752 Index of Modern Authors 770