Warfare in the Old Testament: The Organization, Weapons, and Tactics of Ancient Near Eastern Armies

Up-to-date scholarship, written and illustrated in a popular way.

For the past year I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about the violence of God in the Bible, and especially in the Old Testament. The reason is that I am trying to figure out how to reconcile Jesus' command to love our enemies with all the commands of God in the Old Testament to slaughter them.So it was with interest that I recently read the new book by Boyd Seevers, Warfare in the Old Testament. Though the book provided very little in the way of trying to justify or explain why God sent His people into war, it was an enlightening and helpful book explaining how those wars were carried out.The book essentially looks at the warfare tactics and military weapons used by various cultures in the Old Testament era. It surveyed the methods used by Israel, Persia, Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, and Babylon.You might think that such a book would be boring to all but those who were interested in warfare tactics and weaponry, but I found the book to be enjoyable to read and helpful in understanding what people in the Old Testament thought about war and how it was to be carried out. Each section began with a fictionalized story about a person, soldier, or commander within the ranks of these armies, and showed what they thought about their actions and why they were going to war. This helps the reader identify with the soldiers and descriptions that follow regarding the weapons and tactics that were used by the various cultures.Two things stood out for me from this book.First, every culture tied warfare to worship. To go to war against others was always considered to be an act of obedience to the command and instructions of their god. People went to war because they believed their god was telling them to do so and would protect them in their efforts. Though I already knew this to be the case, this book really impressed upon me how central worship was to warfare in the Old Testament era.But more than that, it made me wonder: Did I really believe that the Egyptians, Persians, or Babylonians were commanded by their gods to go attack other nations? I do not believe that. I believe that this is how they justified their own decisions to go to war. Since that is so, why then do I believe that God actually commanded Israel to go to war? Could it not be that they also were simply using God to justify their own decisions to go to war? Such a thought has numerous theological ramifications for how we understand God and how we read the Old Testament, which I am not sure I have the courage to follow.The second element of this book which stood out for me is that one of the longest descriptions in the book about how an army followed Yahweh's instructions to go to war was in the chapter about how Babylon went to war against Israel. Seevers writes this:"Nebuzaradan then looked at the despondent, confused Judeans preparing for their journey into exile, a journey from which most would never return. Nebuzaradan shook his head. He had grown up in a culture that worshiped other gods, but he served Yahweh better than most of these Judeans had done. He understood well that Yahweh expected real loyalty from his people,which they hadn't displayed" (p. 260).Isn't that interesting? The Babylonians followed Yahweh into battle against Yahweh's people. I knew the truth of this from the Old Testament passages that talk about this, bu it was interesting read it from the perspective of the Babylonian commander.Anyway, if you are interested in Old Testament backgrounds, this book would be a good addition to your library since warfare plays a huge role in nearly all the Old Testament books. If you want to learn about how war was carried out in Israel and the surrounding nations from about 1500-400 B.C., Warfare in the Old Testament by Boyd Seevers will be extremely helpful.

In contrast to many here who liked this book I simply cannot recommend it. While I appreciated the fictional and interesting stories that started each chapter, the bottom line here is that this book provides very little most readers won't already know about Old Testament warfare. Over and over again the author has to say "we do not know much" or "there is little information on" or "it is not clear." That means the book is full of a lot of generalities, and some assumptions. But it simply lacks the factual data and details the book's cover promises. Wish I could go more here but I feel a little misled by all the glowing reviews here. If one reads the O.T. and any Intro to the O.T. or decent commentary he/she will know just about as much about warfare as if he/she buys this book. If you are looking for specifics you need to look elsewhere.

This is a wonderful book by an Old Testament professor who has done his doctoral dissertation related to ancient warfare. Given the prevalence of war in the Old Testament, this book serves as an important resource in giving the background information for our understanding of Scripture. The content of the book is well researched and interesting. It also helps that the book is filled with beautiful illustrations that feature ancient drawings, archaeological finds, helpful maps and contemporary painting recreating what warfare in the past must have looked like. They are very helpful and the author Boyd Seevers did a good job coordinating what he has to say with the illustrations.The book focuses primarily on warfare in the Ancient Near East. The author begins with the Hebrews during the era when they entered into the promise land. Two chapters are devoted towards Israel and their military. This is followed by two chapters on Egypt, one chapter on the Philistines, two chapters on the Assyrians, one chapter on the Babylonians and the final chapter on the Persians.Every kingdom’s military is presented in an organized and clear manner. Each time a certain kingdom is introduced, the author takes the literary license of giving us a fictional “eye witness” account of a warrior so we can get the idea of what it must have been like. This is followed by discussion of the specific kingdom’s historical background, military organization (structure, military branches, etc), weapons (long-medium-short range offensive weapons and defensive measures), and strategies/tactics. Each section and subsection is clearly labeled which makes this an easy access reference for later use.Over all, the book has more strengths than it did weakness.STRENGTHS• In the introduction the author is conscious of cultural experience with warfare and he acknowledges that he never served in the military and grew up in the United States during a time of social upheaval where serving in the military was not necessarily valued. Realizing his limitation, the author took the initiative to share a Marine sergeant’s insight concerning war. It was really good especially concerning tactics! I must confessed my own biases: I myself am a Marine veteran of Iraq.• There were a lot of things I learned from this book that I didn’t know beforehand: The book made the point that the Babylonians and Persians seem to be generally less cruel than the Assyrians during warfare and the Assyrians tend to use a lot of psychological warfare with their opponents. I learned what a composite bow is (a bow that was glued together of various pieces of wood which allow the arrows to go futher).• I appreciated the fact that Seevers cited primary sources and also important secondary sources in the study of the Ancient Near East; especially exciting for me is his reference to Yadin’s work on Old Testament warfare in light of archaeological finding. I have been thinking about getting Yadin’s work for some time now but I have hesitated given how it is somewhat outdated; this new volume by Seevers is a much needed update on the topic.• The end of the book has a good list of recommended resources for further study.WEAKNESS• The input of the Marine concerning strategy waned by the time we get to the middle of the book. It would have been nice to see more insights from him!• Some of the colors on some of maps were clashing and hard to distinguished at time given how they were a few shade different.CONCLUSION I highly recommend this book for anyone with interests in the Old Testament, the Ancient Near East and military history. Pastors and Bible Students will gain much from this work.NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Kregel Publications without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

I really enjoyed this book.The author reviews the tactics, armour and weaponry of the civilisations that are significant participants in the OT: Israelites, Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians etc. Each description is started by a short piece written from the perspective of a 'solider' in that army which I found a little twee but it did help to set the scene. Then we want into some detail on the tactics, weapons etc The illustrations are copied from archaeological remains, which makes them much clearer to see but they did feel a little crude at times - but that could be because the originals were carved in stone and so the drawings accurately reflect this!Despite these niggles I must stress that I did enjoy this book and learned a great deal from it.

its a pity there aren't more contemporary images, but a useful book for information on the main protagonists of the this theatre of conflict...

Des chapitres très intéressants en ce qui concerne divers peuples anciens comme l'Égypte, Sumer, l'Assyrie et autres, avec d'excellents relevés graphiques, mais bon disons que lorsqu'il s'agit de l'Ancien Testament c'est encore le problème qui relie les Textes de la Bible avec la réalité de l'Iliade attribuée à Homère, ce n'est pas du domaine historique mais celui des mythes. L'un est l'autre ont été mis par écrit aux alentours du VII° siècle avant notre ère et l'un est l'autre font des amalgames dont bien des archéologues spécialisés dans chacun de ces domaine savent bien qu'il ne faut pas prendre pour argent comptant tout ce qui est y est relaté. Faire des recherches, l'Iliade ou la Bible à la main, c'est s'aventurer dans l'irréel ou le domaine des rêves ..En France nous avons la Chanson de Roland qui entraîne les mêmes problèmes entre l'époque carolingienne et les poètes de la fin du XI° et des débuts du XII° siècle qui l'ont écrit.