Everyday Life in Old Testament Times #226905

I have tried to write for all who are interested in the Old Testament (except, of course, the learned), but I have had particularly in mind boys and girls in the upper forms of secondary and public schools, students in training colleges, freshmen at universities, teachers, and, not least, that admirable kind of general reader who wishes to read the Bible and who knows from experience that it is wise to consult a guide-book before Venturing abroad. To open the pages of the Old Testament is, indeed, to enter a' foreign territory and its exploration is bound to be fruitless and frustrating, unless we discover by a little preliminary study what to expect, what to look for, and what kind of people' we are likely to meet. We shall lose our bearings, if we read our Western civilization into the Old Testament and assume that the Israelites were exactly like ourselves except for their Arab type clothes.