Daily Life in Biblical TimesWhile the history of Israel during the period from ca. 1200 to 586 B.C.E. has been in the forefront of biblical research, little attention has been given to questions of daily life. Where did the Israelites live? What did people do for a living? What did they eat and what affected their health? How did the family function? These and similar questions form the basis for this book. The book introduces different aspects of daily life. It describes the natural setting and the people who occupied the land. It deals with the economy, both rural and urban, emphasizing the main sources of livelihood such as agriculture, herding, and trade. These topics are discussed in relation to the family in particular and the social structure in general. Other topics include urban society, the bureaucracy and the military. Beyond material culture, the book delves into daily and seasonal cultural, social and religious activities, art, music, and the place of writing in Israelite society. Drawing on textual and archaeological evidence, and written with nontechnical language, the book will be especially helpful for undergraduates, seminarians, pastors, rabbis, and other interested nonspecialist readers as well as graduate students and faculty in Hebrew Bible. |
Contents
The Sources | 8 |
Physical Layout | 14 |
Biblical Depictions of Village Life | 21 |
The Early Years | 35 |
URBAN LIFE | 43 |
THE HOUSEHOLD AND LIFE CYCLES | 63 |
WRITING | 99 |
Miscellaneous Inscriptions | 106 |
NOTES | 127 |
| 139 | |
| 145 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abigail activities agricultural Ahuzam Ancient Israel ancient Near East animals Archaeology Assyrian Aviv Bathya Beer-sheba Bible biblical references Borowski bowl bread Bronze burial Canaan Canaanite century B.C.E. chores clay cultic culture daily David depicted Deut donkeys eaten Egypt Egyptian evidence excavations Exod extrabiblical figurines flour four-room house fruit gate Gezer Gezer Calendar goats grain ground floor harvest Hazor Hebrew Hebrew Bible herd Herzog Hezekiah hill country Hodiah included inscriptions Iron Age Israel Exploration Society Israel Finkelstein Israelite Israelite city Israelite period Israelite society jars Jerusalem Joash Josh Jotham Judah Judg king Lachish land meal Megiddo mentioned milk monarchy olive ostraca Palestine Philistines pottery production Samaria Saul scholars seals settlement sheep Shephelah shrines Sisera sources stone storage story suggests Tamar Tel Aviv University temple threshing floor tree urban villages wall washing YHWH Yigal Shiloh Zeruiah
Popular passages
Page xi - ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by JB Pritchard. 3d ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.