to nonexistent gods, but because it provokes the anger of God, who describes himself as jealous in the Ten Commandments. Within the quote typically translated as "you shall have no other gods before me," the preposition עַל is often translated as "before," but its original Hebrew/Aramaic meaning is closer to "upon," "over," or "above," which in this context may refer to rank. This suggests that its original intent may have been to establish the primacy of Yahweh among the gods and his role as the primary patron of the Israelites, rather than to declare Yahweh's status as the only authentic deity. Later authors characterized idolatry in very different terms: the Book of Isaiah is believed to have been composed and revised by different authors in different periods, with chapters 1-39 being composed by the historical prophet Isaiah in the 8th century BCE, chapters 40-55 attributed to "Deutero-Isaiah," an anonymous author writing during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century BCE, and chapters 56-66 attributed to "Trito-Isaiah," writing after the return from exile. Isaiah 44:6 contains the first unambiguous statement of monotheism, "I am the first and I am the last; beside me there is no God." Isaiah 44:9-10 also contain the first clear declarations of the futility of idolatry and, accordingly, the nonexistence of the other Canaanite gods: "All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit." and "Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing?" As Yahwism competed with the other cults of Canaan and became more focused on Yahweh in particular, and eventually to the exclusion of the older Canaanite gods, its conception of idolatry changed as well, paving the way for monotheism. The people eventually known as Israelites emerged during the second millennium BCE as a distinct subculture of the Canaanite civilization, whose language was ancestral to Hebrew, and whose religion incorporated a pantheon of numerous deities. This civilization was synonymous with the later Phoenicians, who built cities in modern-day Israel and Lebanon, went on to colonize the coast of the Maghreb, and founded a thalassocratic empire ruled from Carthage. The ancient Yahwists are believed to have practiced a form of henotheism, in which Yahweh (identified with ʼĒl) was supreme, but other Canaanite deities could still be worshipped as secondary gods. Canaan had a number of deities, but Yahweh does not seem to have been among