This volume is one in a series of five bringing together the best articles on major fields of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies from the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. The aim of the series is to provide for students a convenient and up-to-date briefing on developments in the field. The volume is designed to serve as a useful and comprehensive course textbook. In the Preface the editor writes: When I was selecting the articles to be reprinted here, I looked for papers that addressed major topics or whole books of the Bible, for papers that would be intelligible to student readers, for papers that were representative of the kinds of work that have been going on in Old Testament studies, and above all for papers that were interesting.