This is one of those books that Skeptics need to read, but won't. Block's study consists of an examination of how ancient Near Eastern peoples understood the relationship between themselves, their gods, and the land they lived on -- and the three are much more interrelated than we might suspect. Ever wonder why Namaan wanted piles of dirt to take home with him (2 Kings 5:15-17)? It's because Yahweh owned the land, and he figured, in line with the perceptions of the time, that you could only worship a deity properly if you had some of the dirt the deity laid claim to. No, readers of Ken's Guide to the Bible: it wasn't for Namaan's tomato garden!

The gods of the ancients were viewed more or less as landlords -- and people were their tenants (in other words, feudalism). If the gods were displeased, your land suffered for it -- though unlike the pagan gods, Yahwah at least laid down his rules; the rest of the gods didn't bother telling their people what they could be doing wrong. The data Block offers gives us input on a number of issues: Why there were such stringent rules against moving boundary makers (because property was thought to be given by divine decree; moving them amounted to a shaking a fist in God's face); why Yahweh had every right to have the Israelites drive out, and if necessary kill, the Canaanites (they were squatters on land that was not their own, by divine decree); why the Philistines were so happy when they got the Ark (and why they were so shocked when Dagon ended up flat on his face).

We recommend Gods of the Nations for precious sociological insights into the OT world that will help make better sense of the OT for we have have lost so much understanding of it.