With the help of current archaeological results and by means of the reinterpretation of core textual traditions relating to the issue of cult, centralization, and monotheism, this study analyses the development of Jahvistic religion in Southern Levant with particular emphasis laid on interactions between Judah and its neighbouring territorial entities, Israel, Philistia and Moab. The author points out that a demonstrably aniconic form of monotheism was a reality only from the very final phasis of the existence of the Kingdom of Judah at the earliest and that the very concept of monotheism had been preceded by the idea of centralization adopted from the north, from the Omride dynasty ruling in the 9th and early 8th centuries BCE in Samaria. Though the close relation between Israel and Judah are concealed in a conventional reading and understanding of biblical texts, detailed analysis focused on the ideological decoding of these texts along with the use of archaeological data and the reading of other ancient textual sources results in a more complex image of religion in the region under consideration.