In Sex, Wives, and Warriors, our understanding of Old Testament narrative is expanded though Phillip Francis Esler's application of an intercultural reading of the texts, focusing on the question: "What would ancient readers have understood from these stories?" This approach reveals previously undiscovered levels of meaning in the Old Testament which readers all too often fail to place in its original cultural and historical context.Esler draws on a wide range of disciplines, and in particular brings the techniques and insights of the social sciences to bear in his analysis. Not only is this reading contextualised and its significance for the Ancient Israelites explored, but Esler utilises scholarship on myth structure and Jungian archetypes to further clarify this original understanding.This is a book ideal for anyone wishing a closer engagement with the biblical texts. Esler makes the narratives resonate with pivotal stories from the Christian and Jewish tradition and in doing so inspires us with their imaginative and literary power and enhances our capacity for intercultural understanding.