Disgrace: The Lies of the Patriarch THE HISTORIOGRAPHIC COMPLEX OF THE HEBREW BIBLE, WHICH OPENS

w ith Genesis and the creation of the world and closes at the end of Kings w ith the Babylonian exile,1 tells a sad story—notwithstanding the faint light that flickers at the end, a glimpse of hope of a better future for the exiled and perhaps even of their being granted the ability to return to the land of Israel when Jehoiachin, king of Judah, is released from prison by the king of Babylon and shown preferential treatm ent (2 Kings 25: 27-30). The central message of this huge complex, which reached its final form more or less during the Babylonian exile, is etiological-theological: it sets forth an explanation of God’s resolve to exile Israel, his chosen people and the nation he favored, from its land, justifying the exile as punishm ent for the Israelites ’ deplorable behavior.2 The doctrine of divine justice, o f reward and punishm ent (mostly punish ment), is the thread on which are strung all the events that, together, comprise the story of Israel’s history. We find this doctrine being played out already in the complex’s opening stories (Genesis 1-11), stories tha