Chapter 2 tests the claim that the biblical god Yhwh is uniquely aggressive by rereading a sample of six memorial inscriptions, including the Mesha Inscription, the Zakkur Inscription, the Tel Dan Inscription, the Hadad Inscription, the Azatiwada Inscription, and the Amman Citadel Inscription. The chapter finds that in these inscriptions, the aggression of the patron god targets external enemies of the king and country, while the king himself is wholly exempted from the god’s destructiveness. However, an important complication obtains: the curse sections of the memorial inscriptions pray vengeance on anyone who harms the inscription—including members of the king’s own community and country, and, in a couple cases, his own family. The loyalty of the god to his one individual king trumps all other loyalties.

The second chapter of Part II treats the first episode in the Narrative of the Transjordanian Tribes. The episode depicts two of Israel’s twelve tribes petitioning Moses to be allowed to occupy territories on the eastern side of the Jordan; their petition incenses Moses, and in responding to his outrage, the tribes affirm the bipartite basis for their affiliation with the nation: kinship and obedience.