Prior to Israel's collapse, each nation had maintained separate versions of the ancient legends of their ancestors. Now, in the cultural ferment of a burgeoning Jerusalem filled with refugees, priests from both nations joined together to systematize the worship of Yahweh in alliance with a powerful faction intent on centralizing religious and economic control over the countryside.9 This alliance, referred to as the “Yahweh-alone movement,” prohibited worshipping any other god than Yahweh, and even Yahweh had to be worshipped in specific ways controlled by the priesthood.
Alliance and the centralistion of worship
