The Five Megilloth

by Bydr A. Cohen, A.J. Rabbi, Ed

Book by Cohen, Bydr A.

400 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1984

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Soncino Books of the Bible are a fascinating set. I stumbled across a copy of the Soncino Psalms in excellent condition in my local Goodwill. I’d never seen anything like this. Each page includes the original Hebrew text, plus an English translation plus a detailed and informative commentary. And to make the books even more remarkable (and irresistible), they are printed and paginated backward to the standard English model – what we would call the back cover is the front cover and the last page is the first page.

Seeing the Psalms, I knew I had to have Job, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, and soon tracked down copies of them on ebay.

Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes are grouped in the Five Megilloth (or scrolls) in the “Writings” section of the Torah, along with Ruth, Lamentations and Esther.

Ecclesiastes ***** -- The introduction and notes provide an excellent background and analysis of this book. It’s very comparable to the insightful commentary that Robert Alter provides in his translation. Both provide a primarily Jewish interpretation and close analysis of the original Hebrew.

Ecclesiastes, with its beautiful sorrows, is one of my favorite books of the Bible.

You can see my overall thoughts on the text in my review of the Robert Alter translation here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...