Divine intercession in Judah?

Abstract

The paper explores evidence and reasons for thinking that some Judeans may have believed in and appealed to divine intercessors with Yahweh. After a brief review of the evidence for such a belief and practice outside Judah and in times before and after the Iron Age and Persian period, it considers factors in the social life and religious beliefs of Judeans that would favor such an institution. It then discusses the limited direct evidence for divine intercession, first in biblical literature from the Persian period and then in inscriptions from the Iron Age.