Transjordan in the Bible have the wrong ethnicity, but are "within the boundary of the 'pure' geographical location." According to Genesis, (), Ammon and Moab were born to Lot and Lot's younger and elder daughters, respectively, in the aftermath of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible refers to both the Ammonites and Moabites as the "children of Lot". Throughout the Bible, the Ammonites and Israelites are portrayed as mutual antagonists. During the Exodus, the Israelites were prohibited by the Ammonites from passing through their lands (). In the Book of Judges, the Ammonites work with Eglon, king of the Moabites against Israel.
The Story of the Jews (book) review of the first volume for "The New York Times", Dwight Garner wrote: "Mr. Schama’s 'The Story of the Jews' is exemplary popular history. It’s engaged, literate, alert to recent scholarship and, at moments, winningly personal... Mr. Schama is Jewish, but not especially religious... His loyalty is obviously to the hard evidence. At the same time, he declares that “the ‘minimalist’ view of the Bible as wholly fictitious, and unhooked from historical reality, may be as much of a mistake as the biblical literalism it sought to supersede." Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, reviewing "Belonging" for the "New Statesman",