Yahweh

===Late Iron Age (1000–586&nbsp;BCE)===
[[File:Ajrud.jpg|thumb|alt=A reconstructed two-handled jar, with many missing fragments.  In the centre, two bull-headed figures look towards us.  There are other figures and the scene is hard to make out.|Painting on a [[Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions|jar found at Kuntillet Ajrud]], under the inscription "Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah" (c.&nbsp;800&nbsp;BCE)]]
The late Iron Age saw the emergence of [[nation state]]s associated with specific [[national god]]s:{{sfn|Schniedewind|2013|p=93}} Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the Ammonites, Qōs the god of the Edomites, and Yahweh the god of the Israelites.{{sfn|Hackett|2001|p=156}}{{sfn|Davies|2010|p=112}} In each kingdom the king was also the head of the national religion and thus the [[viceroy]] on Earth of the national god.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=90}}

Yahweh filled the role of national god in the [[kingdom of Israel (Samaria)]], which emerged in the 10th century BCE; and also in [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]], which may have emerged a century later{{sfn|Geller|2012|p=unpaginated}} (no "God of Judah" is mentioned anywhere in the Bible).{{sfn|Hackett|2001|p=156}}{{sfn|Davies|2010|p=112}} In an inscription discovered in [[Ein Gedi]] and dated around 700 BCE, Yahweh appears described as the lord of "the nations", while in other contemporary texts discovered in [[Khirbet Beit Lei]] (near Lachish) he is mentioned as the ruler of Jerusalem and probably also of Judah.{{sfn|Hess|2020|p=247}} During the reign of [[Ahab]] (c. 871–852&nbsp;BCE), and particularly following his marriage to [[Jezebel]], Baal may have briefly replaced Yahweh as the national god of Israel (but not Judah).{{sfn|Smith|2002|pp=71–72}}{{sfn|Campbell|2001|pp=221–222}}

In the 9th century BCE, there are indications of rejection of Baal worship associated with the prophets [[Elijah]] and [[Elisha]]. The Yahweh-religion thus began to separate itself from its Canaanite heritage; this process continued over the period from 800 to 500&nbsp;BCE with legal and prophetic condemnations of the [[asherim]], [[sun worship]] and worship on the [[high place]]s, along with practices pertaining to the dead and other aspects of the old religion.{{sfn|Smith|2002|page=9}} Features of Baal, El, and Asherah were absorbed into Yahweh, and epithets such as [[El Shaddai]] came to be applied to Yahweh alone.{{sfn|Smith|2002|pp=8, 33–34, 135}} 

In this atmosphere a struggle emerged between those who believed that Yahweh alone should be worshipped, and those who worshipped him within a larger group of gods;{{sfn|Sperling|2017|p=254}} the Yahweh-alone party, the party of the [[prophet]]s and [[Deuteronomist]]s, ultimately triumphed, and their victory lies behind the biblical narrative of an Israel vacillating between periods of "following other gods" and periods of [[fidelity]] to Yahweh.{{sfn|Sperling|2017|p=254}}
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