War and Ethics in the Ancient Near East: Military Violence in Light of Cosmology and History

The monograph considers the relationships of ethical systems in the ancient Near East through a study of warfare in Judah, Israel and Assyria in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. It argues that a common cosmological and ideological outlook generated similarities in ethical thinking, with kings’ military activities made morally imperative by their identification with a cosmic struggle against chaos. The research begins the discussion of ancient Near Eastern ethics outside of Israel and Judah and fills a scholarly void by placing Israelite and Judahite ethics within this context.