In the Year 1230 BCE, the stately city of Shechem cradled between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal was suddenly disturbed out of her reserved formality, her closely-watched market, her liturgical inner temple routine, her orderly sentinelled turrets. A ood of people from every direction poured into her gates and thronged her narrow streets. A new nation called Israel was about to come into being. A fact validated by two corroborative Egyptian inscriptions hieroglyphed in stone. At Shechem in the Year 931 BCE two historians began to write the story of Israel. Two women. Civil war triggered their need to write. A tragicomic situation was unfolding, and the two insightful women could see it coming. They were in the royal court, but, being women, they were powerless to avert the catastrophe. Being educated, they did have the power of the pen Rehoboam, the successor to King Solomon was being crowned at Shechem and his cocky arrogance created a catastrophe-the breakup of Israel. "Professor Thomson's skill as a teacher and writer enables his students and reader to think through the ancient stories and give them context in archaeological settings in life like Shechem." -Dr. Lucie Lavoie, Universite de Montreal.