A lifetime of essential scholarship from one of biblical archaeology’s most prolific scholars

For Those Who Sleep in the Dust collects thirteen of William G. Dever’s best articles and essays on the archaeological history of ancient Israel. Dever’s work on a range of hotly debated topics, including the origins of the Israelite people, the development of the state, and Israelite religion, gives voice to the ordinary, anonymous Israelites and Judahites hidden in the shadows of the leaders, battles, and religious debates memorialized in the Hebrew Bible. These essays not only illuminate the ancient human experience but also make biblical archaeology accessible to anyone who needs a broad introduction to what archaeology can and cannot reveal about the Bible.

William G. Dever is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and Professor Emeritus at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona. Dever is the author of more than four hundred publications, including What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? What Archeology Can Tell Us about the Reality of Ancient Israel (2001), Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? (2003), The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel: Where Archaeology and the Bible Intersect (2012), Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah (2017), and My Nine Lives: Sixty Years in Israeli and Biblical Archaeology (2020).

William G. Dever is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and Professor Emeritus at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona. Dever is the author of more than four hundred publications, including What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? What Archeology Can Tell Us about the Reality of Ancient Israel (2001), Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? (2003), The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel: Where Archaeology and the Bible Intersect (2012), Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah (2017), and My Nine Lives: Sixty Years in Israeli and Biblical Archaeology (2020).