Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrate that ethnic affiliation, religious practices, competing resources and territorial ambitions all figure among the triggers of conflict between Israelites and the peoples they meet within the world constructed in biblical narrative. Israelites fight, conquer, dispossess and exterminate others. Fear and intimidation are manipulated and fanned into ongoing cycles of violence. The chapter illustrates the extent to which many of these insights fuel the tensions and plot between Israelites and others. It shows that strange women are repeatedly exploited for ideological, political or religious reasons as snares aimed at Israelite men, allowing biblical writers to undermine or criticize an individual character or the people Israel in general. Israelite leaders conducted negotiations and diplomacy with them. Biblical writers were curious about strangers or worried about their intentions.