Hi Smiddy3.
Good references include: "The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel", Mark Smith;
"Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan", John Day.
(Search online for PDF files -- or email me).
"Asherah and the cult of Yahweh in Israel", Saul Olyan.
"When God was a woman", Merlin Stone. etc., etc.
In Genesis 1, the name of God is given as EL. He was the main God of Canaan (from the north). He and his wife Asherah had 70 children, all gods, one of whom was the warrior god Baal. The group was known as the Elohim ("let US make ..."). YHWH was not one of the Elohim.
A group of Jews came up from the south, where Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, was priest to the God Yahweh. So this small group brought Yahweh, also a warrior god, up with them.
The people who wrote Genesis 2 display the merging of YHWH with EL, hence we get YHWH EL => LORD God.
The Israelites were quite tolerant (Monolatrists) and they worshipped several gods. A small minority faction were monotheists, worshipping YHWH. It is their propaganda that we now read, although traces of the opposing views still filter through. We read of the Yahwists' anger at the opposition. At one stage the people moved Asherah from EL and have her to YHWH. We read that they even put Asherah poles in the sanctuary.
Both YHWH and Baal were warrior gods, hence the frenzied opposition we read about in the Yahwists' writings (Hebrew Scriptures)
The Yahwists, who were centred in Jerusalem, used the opportunity given to them by the neo-Babylonian period. Read, for example, their manifesto at Isaiah 40. Or what they wrote at Deuteronomy 6:4.
The nation that left Babylon was very different to the nation that went into captivity. From that time, the monotheists, the Yahwists, exerted increasing power. That was not the sole metamorphosis experienced by the Hebrews. Slowly they became known as Jews through living in Judah. Later, following the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, the rising Rabbinic Judaism slowly transformed the peoples into the versions we witness today.
Any help?
Doug