The Hebrew narrative art achieves its highest level in the stories of Saul, David, andSolomon. But beyond that, the description of these all-too-human characters and thedramatic events of the birth of the Israelite state depicts a change of eras that becamedeterminative for half a millennium of Israelite history. In this volume Dietrich introducesreaders to the stories of the early Israelite state from a variety of perspectives: literarycritical,historical, and theological. After tracing how biblical and extrabiblical texts describethe period, Dietrich skillfully untangles the knotty questions related to the history of theperiod and perceptively examines the development of this literary corpus as well as the otherbiblical material that came to be associated with it. In a concluding chapter Dietrich revisitsthe stories of Saul, David, and Solomon to explore what they teach about theological issuesof enduring significance, what they teach about God, humanity, the state, the use of force,and the relationship between women and men.Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).