Apparently this poem, in her first book of poetry, won the Pushcart Prize. Not familiar with the prize, but wow....this poem....
In reality, before the Babylonian captivity, the anciant Israelites had within their cannon the idea of the Covenant: Their tribal god, Yahweh, had promised them the lands of Israel forever.
When the kingdom of Israel allied with Egypt against Babylon in a war Egypt lost, the Israelites escaped to Syria or became slaves in Babylon.
They no longer had the lands. This was a problem for their religion. How to explain it?
(end part 1)
The hebrew scribes settled on the idea the Israelites had been insufficiently devoted to Yahweh (they were polytheists).
Among other revered gods was Asherah, consort to Yaweh. The first Temple even had Asherah poles representing the goddess within it.
And so the scribes saw the worship of Asherah as the key issue leading to the end of the covenant.
(end part 2)
And so the scribes settled on what you might call an edit of the story of creation in Genesis which included a female, Eve, who tempted Adam leading to the Fall from Grace. This lesson explained the voiding of the covenant, and lead to the prohibition against worshiping any other gods, especially Asherah.
@misslovelymess Note, when I said "Syria", I meant Persia. King Cyrus had given many fleeing Israelites refuge in Persia. Cyrus is mentioned in the Old Testament as a "messiah" even though Cyrus was a Zoroastrian.
@misslovelymess
And that is the condensed version of how Judaism became the 2nd Monotheistic religion and how Eve sort of became the scapegoat representing polytheism and the fall of the kingdom of Israel.