Abstract
This chapter addresses major aspects of daily life narrated in the Hebrew Bible, beginning with the patriarchal period and ending during the era of Persian hegemony over Syria-Palestine. It covers social, cultural, and demographic features over a period of approximately 1400 years. The chapter explores the first agreement or treaty, usually called covenant, between God and the Israelites, here represented by Abraham. There are two relevant factors here. First, the ceremony of covenant making preserves very old features, such as walking between sacrificed animals that had been divided into two separate groups. Second, the covenant, is clearly not between equal partners; rather, a superior power or suzerain initiates it. The chapter presents a full-blown suzerainty treaty in which God expands upon the promise of numerous offspring. It provides widely contrasting pictures of hospitality, which everywhere in the ancient world ranked as a virtuous action well above today's understanding of the word as following protocol or etiquette.