Works on Old Testament historiography, the 'Conquest', and the origins of ancient Israel have burgeoned in recent days. But while others have been issuing new reconstructions this novel work presents a close reading of the biblical text. The focus is on the literary techniques that ancient writers employed in narrating stories of conquest, and the aim is to pinpoint their communicative intentions in their own contexts. This reading is enhanced by engagement with the important discipline of the philosophy of history. Ancient Conquest accounts, replete with extensive quotations from Assyrian, Hittite and Egyptian conquest accounts, is a learned and methodologically sensitive study of a wide range of ancient Near Eastern texts as well as of Joshua 9-12.

James Hoffmeier is a giant in the field of Egyptology. Among his many publications are two volumes of archaeological reports from Tell el-Borg, where he led excavations from 1999 to 2008. He is also well known for his interest in how ancient Egypt and the biblical world intersected, having edited and written several books on the subject, including the recent “Did I Not Bring Israel Out of Egypt?” Biblical, Archaeological, and Egyptological Perspectives on the Exodus Narratives, published by Eisenbrauns. Dedicated to Hoffmeier, this volume features essays written by more than thirty of his colleagues, former students, and friends. The contributions cover the second and first millennia BCE—from the Egyptian Old Kingdom through the Persian period—as well as New Testament times. The subjects covered include archaeology, biblical studies, Egyptology, and, of course, how these fields intersect with one another. Among the many contributors are Aaron A. Burke, Deirdre Fulton, Rick Hess, Edmund Meltzer, Alan Millard, Steven Ortiz, Donald B. Redford, Gary A. Rendsburg, and Nili Shupak. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students who, following in the footsteps of Hoffmeier, are interested in how the biblical world interacted with ancient Egypt and the ancient Near East.