F. F. Bruce shapes the daunting complexities of Israel's history into straight prose that sparkles with clarity. This new edition, carefully revised by David F. Payne, includes new material and a revised bibliography.

2011 Reprint of 1963 American Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This work combines a scholar's research and a Christian's interpretations with popular history's readability. It is a definitive source book on the history of ancient Israel from the Exodus to the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Bruce does not deal with Israel as an isolated unit. Rather, he deals with Israel from the standpoint of its historical interaction with its almost forgotten neighbors. The detailed genealogical and chronological tables which add so much to the value of this book were compiled by the author himself after intensive research.

In this much-anticipated textbook, three respected biblical scholars have written a history of ancient Israel that takes the biblical text seriously as an historical document. While also considering nonbiblical sources and being attentive to what disciplines like archaeology, anthropology, and sociology suggest about the past, the authors do so within the context and paradigm of the Old Testament canon, which is held as the primary document for reconstructing Israel's history. In Part One, the authors set the volume in context and review past and current scholarly debate about learning Israel's history, negating arguments against using the Bible as the central source. In Part Two, they seek to retell the history itself with an eye to all the factors explored in Part One.