Ezekiel served Judah during the darkest days of its history—the 70 years of Babylonian captivity. When he began prophesying in about 593 B.C., Israel had been non-existent for more than 100 years  

Written in Judah’s final days as a nation, during and after the siege of Jerusalem from 588 to 586 B.C., Lamentations expresses the prophet’s sorrow at his beloved country’s destruction.  

Jeremiah has been called the 'weeping prophet'. Some describe him as a heartbroken prophet with a heartbreaking message about Judah’s last days as a nation.  

Isaiah preached from around 745 B.C. near the end of Uzziah’s reign and through those of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah to about 686 B.C.  

What Romans is to righteousness by faith, Song of Solomon is to romantic love. Tracing a couple’s infatuation, courtship, marriage, physical intimacy, conflict resolution and long-term deepening, as a comprehensive marriage manual the book is unmatched.  

The theme of Ecclesiastes, dreary as it sounds, is the futility of a life. Without the hope of Christ, the short, irrelevant human life simply ends.  

Solomon, speaker of “three thousand proverbs”, wrote Proverbs around 900 B.C. Proverbs’ theme of wisdom offers gem after gem of practical advice for effective, ethical, successful living.  

Scholars disagree over the exact dating of the Psalms, but the songs in it were written over many centuries, from the time of Moses to the Babylonian captivity.  

Job’s story dispels the myth of the “prosperity gospel”—that if you do good you will only experience God’s blessing. Many themes may be mined from Job’s story but the overarching one is that, bad things do sometimes happen to good people.  

Emerging from Babylon after 70 years, the Jews were less a nation and more a religion. Their spirit could not be crushed, however, and the story of Esther captures that spirit.  

Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther are the only books which tell of the Jews’ postexilic history, and even these contain only small pieces of history with large gaps in between. Ezra and Nehemiah describe events early in the Persian reign ...  

A theme of Chronicles is the re-establishment of Israel as a nation in the land that God promised them. Though written at a different time and from a different perspective, Chronicles covers the same time period as Samuel and Kings.  

1st and 2nd Kings traces Israel’s history through Solomon’s reign, the nation’s division into two kingdoms, Israel’s disintegration, and Judah’s captivity.  

According to Jewish tradition, Samuel wrote the first 24 chapters of 1 Samuel, and Nathan and Gad wrote the remainder. Some scholars attribute the second part of 1 Samuel to Isaiah, but more likely the book was written shortly after 960 B.C.  

Ruth came from Moab; her people had descended from Lot. Though no evidence confirms it, Jewish tradition holds that Samuel wrote Ruth, probably in the early days of David’s reign.  

Jewish tradition holds that Samuel wrote Judges, or Shophetim, but this theory cannot be proven. Whoever authored the book wrote sometime near the beginning of David’s reign, likely between 1045 and 1000 B.C.  

The book of Joshua serves as a sequel of sorts to the Pentateuch, much the way Acts continues the story told in the Gospels. Its theme summed up in verse 21:45, Joshua portrays the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants.  

The book of Numbers reminds us that when we wander from God and reject His instruction, we will experience punishment through the natural consequences of our choices.  

Both Jews and Christians have always believed that Moses wrote Leviticus and no sufficient evidence disproves his authorship. He wrote the book sometime between 1440 and 1400 B.C.  

As its name suggests, the theme of Exodus is the Israelites’ movement from slavery in Egypt to independence in the wilderness, and the establishment of their religion and culture. The book tells how God begins to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by leading their descendants to the Promised Land.  

Though Genesis does not name its author as do the other books of the Pentateuch, its language and writing style are similar enough to conclude that Moses wrote it as well, probably between 1440 and 1400 B.C.  

Criticism abounds of the Bible’s historical accuracy, typically claiming a lack of outside sources confirming the Bible’s stories. Interestingly, few other historical documents are required to undergo such scrutiny, even those that also contain religious elements.  

Throughout human history, no book has been more influential, more read, more studied, and more talked about than the Bible.