Starting from the smallness of Palestine, scarcely larger than an English county, Sayce surveys the Israelites and their neighbours: the Canaanites, the nations to the south-east and north-east, Egypt, and Babylonia and Assyria. He draws on monuments and inscriptions to set the Old Testament story among the empires that pressed upon it, down to Josiah and Nebuchadrezzar.
A readable older survey of the biblical world, best read alongside modern scholarship. Download the free EPUB.