Chapter 1 introduces a contrast that has played an important role in biblical studies. Pivotal figures like Julius Wellhausen and Walther Eichrodt alike claim that the biblical god Yhwh is distinct from his ancient divine counterparts in that he alone acts destructively against his own king and country. To test this long-standing thesis, the chapter argues that memorial inscriptions from the Levant constitute the most interesting and productive comparand available for assessing the uniqueness of Yhwh’s aggression, and this for several reasons: their relative cultural and linguistic proximity to ancient Israel and Judah; their relative length as texts, as over against other royal inscriptions like dedicatory inscriptions; the relative richness of their deity profile; and especially their closing curse sections that provide examples of divine aggression.

Chapter 6 offers summary reflections on the conclusions and contributions of the present work, including its findings for the study of the royal palms, the study of Syro-Palestinian inscriptions, Hebrew Bible theology, and the history of Israelite religion. In addition to proposing a new analytic for royal psalms (i.e. psalms of defeat), the book adds depth and specificity to previous scholarship on the theology of the royal psalms. It draws in sharper silhouette the animating commitment of royal psalms: Yhwh’s loyalty to his one individual client king. The book also calls attention to the non-narrative and lyric qualities of inscriptions, and it emphasizes the rhetorical centrality of their closing curse sections. For the study of Hebrew Bible theology, the present work holds up the important and distinctive theological offer of royal psalms. Historically, Levantine memorial inscriptions reflect an earlier engagement with Neo-Assyrian royal ideology and its monuments than scholars have argued heretofore, and a deeper indigenization.