Even though the theme of return migration is specific to Ezra–Nehemiah, the concept of social displacement appears throughout the Old Testament from the banishment from Eden, through ancestral journeys and multiple exiles from Samaria and Judah. Thus, the multivalent theology of Ezra–Nehemiah engenders a broader dialogue with the rest of the Old Testament.

Like the later prophets, the Hebrew prophets were divinely authorized whistleblowers. The prophet Nathan confronted King David over his adultery and murder; Isaiah and Jeremiah confronted their kings over their alliances with foreign powers; Elijah confronted King Ahab over the murder and dispossession of his neighbor. Prophets from Amos to Jeremiah excoriate the priests of their day for making a mockery of Temple worship by attempting to bribe God with sacrifices and pious words. The prophets insist that all religious rites must serve righteousness, that moral purity comes before ritual purity. No wonder the Hebrew prophets were condemned and persecuted by priests and kings for being both heretics and traitors. The Hebrew prophets almost never attempted to exercise priestly or political power; they simply attempted to veto the abuses of priests and kings in the name of God. The Hebrew prophets, like our later prophets, were more than merely critics; they were also visionaries of peace and social justice.

Michael C. Legaspi examines ‘Wisdom’s Wider Resonance’. It has been common to find the influence of wisdom literature across the canon, but Legaspi outlines the problems with this, and takes an alternative approach. He examines the ḥ-k-m (‘wisdom’) root in parts of the Bible not usually associated with wisdom literature to find overlooked resonances of the concept. Specifically, he examines the idea that wisdom concerns the relationship between human and divine realms (common in Greek and Jewish thought). This understanding is evident in biblical descriptions of sacred spaces, for the lead craftsmen who construct the tabernacle and temple (Bazalel and Hiram respectively) are divinely endowed with wisdom. Equally, wisdom (albeit a corrupted wisdom) proliferates in Ezekiel 28, associated with proximity to and specialist knowledge of the divine, and construction of sacred spaces. A similar understanding may also underlie Jeremiah’s descriptions of Jerusalem’s degraded wisdom. This analysis encourages us to understand ‘wisdom’ more capaciously than traditional delimitations of ‘wisdom literature’ allow.

Nabopolassar fought with an Assyrian-style army and took the throne of Babylon. Thirteen years later, Nineveh fell despite Egyptian help. Babylon took over much of the Assyrian empire. Later he defeated the last Assyrian king at Harran. His success was seen as Marduk’s revenge. Captured wealth from Assyrian royal cities allowed major building work at Babylon, which was continued by Nabopolassar’s son Nebuchadnezzar II. Neither king left statues of themselves, and cylinder seals represent gods by their symbols. Major subsidence in the citadel required frequent rebuilding on the Southern Palace. The names of temples and gates were compiled on to a clay tablet as a literary work. Colour-glazed bricks adorned the Processional Way leading to the temple of the New Year festival outside the citadel walls. That festival is described. Some of his creations Nebuchadnezzar described as a Wonder, but he made no mention of the Hanging Garden. In a separate part of the citadel, Nebuchadnezzar built a Summer Palace. His conquests included Tyre and Ashkelon but not Egypt or Lydia. He sacked the Temple in Jerusalem and deported its royal family to Babylon. Other captives settled on land nearby. Business archives of long duration continue into the Achaemenid period.

Promises of Israel's restoration appear throughout the Latter Prophets. This chapter argues that modern interpreters have overlooked the surprising amount of attention specifically paid to the fate of the northern tribes of Israel throughout the Latter Prophets, even in books by prophets who lived long after the destruction of the northern kingdom.Whereas many have suggested a narrowing in the scope of Israel such that prophecies such as those of Second Isaiah refer to the restoration of Judah, this chapter argues that the prophets consistently take a more expansive view of Israel and that Second Temple period readers would have—and in fact did—read these prophecies as referring not only to those from Judah exiled by the Babylonians but also to the northern tribes scattered by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE. The prophets' promises therefore remained unfulfilled so long as the northern tribes had not returned.

Provides an overview of the aims and scope of the project, introducing the ongoing transformation of scriptural texts as a key issue in our understanding of early Judaism. Introduces several key texts that have served as prototypes in the scholarly discussion of early Jewish rewriting.

There are multiple indications within the Bible itself that Josiah took an interest in the north; these form a foundation for the argument that Isa 24–27 was an overture by Josiah to inhabitants of the former Israelite kingdom. It has demonstrated the continuing consensus that the basic reports of Josiah’s reforming activities in Bethel were more or less contemporaneous with his reign, which suggests that Judah had increased freedom to operate in the former Northern Kingdom. Yet it has also observed that there is no indication in the Bible or in archaeological findings that Josiah ever conquered or ruled the bulk of the north. He had ambitions, but they went unfulfilled – indeed, they may have cost him his life when Egypt sensed them. From Egypt’s point of view, Judah seems to have been more or less free to inhabit its rocky hill country, but an interest in the more desirable lands farther north or west would not have been well received.