" The state religion of the monarchy shared many common features with the state religions known in the ancient Near East, such that to an outside observer much would have looked the same. The public role of the king, the functions of the temple and the priests, and the maintenance rituals on behalf of the kingdom all would have had a familiar feel. Nonetheless, the literature of the Old Testament insists that Yahweh is not like any other god. Those elements that often served as the underlying foundations of state religion in the ancient Near East were unacceptable in the ideals and values that the prophets presented for Yahwism. "

― , Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible