In this guide­book Julie Baretz takes read­ers to twen­ty-one off-the-beat­en-path loca­tions in Israel where Bible sto­ries are said to have hap­pened. At each site she sets the scene by relat­ing the his­tor­i­cal con­text of the event, then fol­lows with the bib­li­cal text itself and her own live­ly com­men­tary. Cap­ti­vat­ing and com­plex Bible char­ac­ters bring the loca­tions to life as they face social, eth­i­cal, and spir­i­tu­al dilem­mas not unlike our own today. Baretz’s nar­ra­tives draw on his­to­ry, archae­ol­o­gy, aca­d­e­m­ic schol­ar­ship, and rab­binic lit­er­a­ture for inter­pre­ta­tions that enhance the mean­ing of the bib­li­cal events.

The Bible on Loca­tion traces the chronol­o­gy and nar­ra­tive arc of the his­tor­i­cal books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Ezra, and Nehemi­ah. The book begins with the Israelites’ arrival in the land of Israel (fol­low­ing the exo­dus from Egypt and the forty years of wan­der­ing) and con­tin­ues over more than six hun­dred years, until the return of the Jew­ish exiles from Baby­lon to their homeland.

Baretz’s descrip­tions are accom­pa­nied by col­or­ful maps and pho­tographs that put actu­al and arm­chair vis­i­tors in the mid­dle of the action. Each loca­tion reveals a new episode in the bib­li­cal nar­ra­tive and pro­vides inspi­ra­tion and com­men­tary that will enhance vis­its to the var­i­ous sites.

Read Julie Baret­z’s Vis­it­ing Scribe Posts

Organ­ic Zionism

Read­ing Tanakh with Christians

My First Midrash