Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Chapter One The Economies of Ancient Israel

1.1. Presuppositions and Methods

1.2. The Text of Kings as a Source

1.3. The Text of Kings as History

1.4. The Economies of Ancient Israel: A Survey of Research

1.5. Conclusions

Chapter Two Economic Anthropology

2.1. Theories of Political Economy

2.1.a. Classical Political Economy

2.1.b. Karl Marx

2.1.c. Max Weber

2.2. The Pioneering Economic Anthropologists

2.3. Karl Polanyi

2.3.a. The Great Transformation

2.3.b. Reciprocity

2.3.c. Redistribution

2.3.d. Market Exchange

2.3.e. The Problem of Terminology

2.4. Reactions to Polanyi

2.4.a. Economic Anthropology

2.4.b. Assyriology

2.4.c. The Informal Economy

2.4.d. Biblical Studies

2.5. Summary and Conclusions

Chapter Three Symmetrical Reciprocity in the Book of Kings

3.1. Reciprocity in the Ancient Near East

3.2. Reciprocity among Polities

3.2.a. King Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre

3.2.b. King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

3.2.c. Hezekiah and Merodach-Baladan

3.3. Non-elite Reciprocity

3.3.a. Refusing Reciprocity to Subvert

3.3.b. Offering Reciprocity to Empower

3.3.c. Non-Elite Reciprocity as Informal Economy

3.3.d. Historical Considerations

3.4. Summary and Conclusions

Chapter Four Asymmetrical Redistribution in the Book of Kings

4.1. The Redistributive Economy in Pre-Exilic Israel

4.1.a. Iron Age IIA (980–840/830 bce): State Formation

4.1.b. Iron Age IIB (840/830–732/701 bce): Neo-Assyrian Threat

4.1.c. Iron Age IIC (732/701–605/587 bce): Foreign Hegemony

4.2. State Redistribution

4.2.a. Solomonic Redistribution

4.2.b. Temple Redistribution

4.2.c. The Exception to State Redistribution: Patrimonial Land

4.3. International Redistribution

4.3.a. The Items of Tribute

4.3.b. The Ideology of Tribute

4.4. Theoretical Reconsiderations: The Reciprocity of Redistribution

4.5. Summary and Conclusions

Chapter Five Market Exchange in the Book of Kings

5.1. Did Ancient Israel Know Price-Determining Markets? The State of the Question

5.2. Possible References to Market Exchange

5.2.a. 1 Kings 9:26–28; 10:11–12, 22, 28–29: Solomon’s Long-Distance Trade

5.2.b. 1 Kings 20:34: Israelite Merchants in Damascus

5.2.c. 2 Kings 6:24–25; 7:1–18: Price Movements in Besieged Samaria

5.2.d. 2 Kings 4:1–7: The Widow’s Sale of Oil

5.3. References to Silver

5.4. Did Israel Know Price Setting Markets?

5.5. Summary and Conclusions

Chapter Six A Social Analysis of Exchange in the Book of Kings

6.1. Ancient Israel as a Mixed Economy

6.2. Ancient Israel as an Informal Economy

6.3. The Economic System of Israel and Judah

6.3.a. The Local Economy

6.3.b. The International Economy

Chapter Seven Summary and Conclusions

7.1. Overall Summary and Conclusions

7.2. Directions for Future Research: Post-exilic Portrayals of Economic Exchange

Select Bibliography

Index of Ancient Sources

Index of Modern Authors

Subject Index