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'.

Oded Lipschits, Tel Aviv University, Israel.