This present study seeks to clarify the character and functions of the Neo-Babylonian empire in its relationship to subjugated populations, and in particular to the population of Judah.

Vanderhooft reverses the usual focus within biblical studies by asking not how the Neo-Babylonian dynasty of about 605-539 BCE influenced Judah or particular biblical writers, but how the biblical texts illuminate the phenomenon of Babylonian imperialism. He focuses on the character and functions of the empire in its relations to the population of Judah and other subjugated peoples, and on what the responses of those populations can reveal about the empire. The treatment began as a doctoral dissertation for Harvard University in May 1996. This volume is in a series formerly distributed by Scholars Press, but now distributed by Eisebrauns. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament series serves pastors and teachers by providing them with a careful discourse analysis and interpretation of the Hebrew text, tracing the flow of argument in each Old Testament book and showing that how a biblical author says something is just as important as what they say.

This volume is the outcome of an international conference held at Tel Aviv University, May 29-31, 2001. The idea for the conference germinated at the fifth Transeuphratene colloquy in Paris in March 2000. The Tel Aviv conference was organized in order to encourage investigation into the obscure five or six decades preceding the Persian conquests in the latter part of the 6th century. The essays here are organized in 5 parts: (1) The Myth of the Empty Land Revisited; (2) Cult, Priesthood, and Temple; (3) Military and Governmental Aspects; (4) Archaeological Perspectives on the 6th Century B.C.E.; and (5) Exiles and Foreigners in Egypt and Babylonia. Contributors: H. M. Barstad, B. Oded, L. S. Fried, S. Japhet, J. Blenkinsopp, G. N. Knoppers, Y. Amit, D. Edelman, Y. Hoffman, R. H. Sack, D. Vanderhooft, J. W. Betlyon, A. Lemaire, C. E. Carter, O. Lipschits, A. Zertal, J. R. Zorn, B. Porten, and R. Zadok.