This bit of the human drama will forever remain outside of my capacity to comprehend. The distance of it all. I cannot get inside of it. I remain a foreigner to this ancient landscape, and outsider looking in.The world of the Bible, and that of the ancients in general, is indeed very foreign to us. As Pete observes about a more recent period, most of us would die almost immediately if we were transported back to it. I have observed many times that the casual barbarity and degradation of the ancient world is far outside the experience of most of us and probably outside our ability even to imagine realistically.
UPDATE (2 July): Dead links now fixed. Apologies.