The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary
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The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary Overviews
One of Newsweek’s Best Books of the Year and winner of the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement. A cornerstone of the scriptural canon, The Book of Psalms has been a source of solace and joy for countless readers over millennia. This timeless poetry is beautifully wrought by a scholar whose translation of The Five Books of Moses was hailed as a “godsend” by Seamus Heaney and a “masterpiece” by Robert Fagles. Alter’s The Book of Psalms captures the simplicity, the physicality, and the coiled rhythmic power of the Hebrew, restoring the remarkable eloquence of these ancient poems. His learned and insightful commentary illuminates the obscurities of the text.
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The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary CustomerReview
Alter, Robert, The Book of Psalms, A Translation with Commentary (New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2007)
There may be dozens of books available today on the Psalms. I have a half dozen myself, but this is the one I constantly consult, on a weekly basis, when I write my notes on the Psalm of the week. It is the author's own `scholarly' translation, meaning that the objective was accurately rendering the words of the poets, with only secondary regard for a poetic rendering in English a la the KJV version of the 23rd Psalm. This is not to say the translation ignores poetic impact. The author will choose a phrasing with better poetic impact if the literal translation makes no sense to modern understanding. Unlike Greek, Hebrew is an extraordinarily concrete language, with few words for abstract concepts, so it is remarkable to see how often the literal Hebrew is downright earthy.
Included below the translation are ample notes explaining unfamiliar words and choices made in the course of the translation. Do not be scared off by this! There are no words in Hebrew script and there are no interminable references to what a dozen other scholars said about the translation of a particular word or phrase. These notes also contain ample explanations of settings and historical background. Compared to other commentaries I've read on the Psalms, these explanations are quite candid in confessing to what we really don't know about things like various musical instruments, instructions to the choir, or regarding the settings in which the Psalms may have been read or sung.
For those of you who may not know, Professor Alter (Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley) is one of the two (or three, depending on whose counting) leading authorities on Biblical Hebrew literature, especially Hebrew poetry (the other leader is James Kugel). Befitting that background, Alter includes a brief introduction on the poetry of the Psalms, but to appreciate his work on this fully, you need to consult his The Art of Biblical Poetry.
An important aspect of the book for the non-scholar is that the book is simply very easy to read. It's print and cover have the appearance of a modern book of poetry. The built-in ribbon bookmark (hardcover edition) is an especially nice touch for a book meant to be in your living room, not in a scholar's carrel. This presentation does present some caveats. While it is far easier to read the Psalms as poetry in this book, it is not possible to cross reference material to other parts of the Bible. This approaches the Psalms entirely as a work of literature. For an appreciation of the Psalms as wisdom literature, prayers, or `prophesy', you should have a good cross-referencing study Bible.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored:Jul 21, 2010 23:14:59
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