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The Book of Psalms
A brilliant new translation and commentary of one of the Bible s most cherished and powerful books.
Like the Five Books of Moses a cornerstone of the scriptural canon, the Book of Psalms has been a source of solace and joy for countless readers over millennia. The cleansing purity of its images invites reflection and supplication in times of sorrow. The musicality of ...more
Like the Five Books of Moses a cornerstone of the scriptural canon, the Book of Psalms has been a source of solace and joy for countless readers over millennia. The cleansing purity of its images invites reflection and supplication in times of sorrow. The musicality of ...more
Hardcover, 560 pages
Published
September 10th 2007
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published December 1st 1972)
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Tom Mayer
rated it
Recommends it for:
fans of Alter's previsou translations, those who admire the beauty and power of biblical poetry
I won't write much here because I'll have to do it all again for the press release (Full disclosure: I work as an editor for Norton). Suffice it to say that Alter is a sterling translator and his commenatry on the translation -- in many cases with notes longer than the passages rendered into English -- is authorative and thought-provoking. He first translated GENESIS, then the EXODUS, then he continued and put together one book on the FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. I gather that the BOOK OF PSALMS is the ...more
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I love the Psalms; they always seem to echo my hearts thoughts. Reading the Psalms through in July and August was very important to me as I went through some life struggles, fears, worries etc... and as I read, I grew closer to God in many, many ways.
I highly recommend taking a month or two and going through them- even if it's just a few chapters a day. Reading through them slowly is my preference anyway :)
I highly recommend taking a month or two and going through them- even if it's just a few chapters a day. Reading through them slowly is my preference anyway :)
Greg
is currently reading it
Beautiful new translation of the Book of Psalms. Really cuts past that King James malarkey.
Robert Alter returned to the original Hebrew for this excellent and beautiful translation of the Book of Psalms. He includes a lengthy history of where the Psalms began, the difficulty of translating and giving a final product as much like the Hebrew poetry as possible, though in English. I took a year to read these, slowly, and will read them again. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the Psalms, and the various translations of the Bible.
I'm really excited about this one. Palmer's main project in translating the psalms is to capture and to translate the poetry of the psalms. That is an excellent venture in my opinion. But he translates primarily from a Hebrew frame of mind, rather than a Christian reading the Psalms. I really appreciate his attempt to be faithful to the poetry of the Psalms, both in form and content. Additionally, the notes are stellar.
One of my new favorite books. From the historical critical perspective, this translation offers helpful insights for original motive and stance. With any liturgical text(s) of this kind, it is crucial to place it/them within the context of the life of the worshiping community (for Psalms: Second Temple, Synagogue and Christian Church). So far, Alter seems to stick to the origin of the writing itself.
The New Yorker gave a good review of this translation of the Psalms. The translator strives to provide a translation that is closer in sound and meaning to the original Hebrew. The Psalms are of interest both in the way that they are integral to much of Shakespeare, at least in the King James version, and how distant that translation is from the original verse.
I love new translations of familiar things, things that you think you know until the new translation makes them new. Alter is a brilliant writer, let alone translator. He writes about "the coiled power" of Hebrew. The coiled power of language -- just think of it, could language be described any more accurately?
Kelly
is currently reading it
I read the review in The New Yorker and asked for this book for Christmas. It's not a book I can just sit and read, but the translations are beautiful with full explanations to the whys of the English wording. The author is sensitive and interested in drawing the most from the primary texts.
A really fresh, stark and poetically loyal translation. Really worthwhile. Second time around. Still great.
One of the texts in my Literary Responses to Evil class with Dr. Greg Garrett.
some pretty catchy tunes here... something for everyone.
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Robert Alter was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Lifetime Achievement and the PEN Center Literary Award for Translation. He is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and has published many acclaimed works on the Bible, literary modernism, and contemporary Hebrew literature.
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