Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets; Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; A Translation with Commentary

Alter (Hebrew & comparative literature, Univ. of California, Berkeley; The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary) continues his work translating the Hebrew Bible. His literary skills are on full display here as he translates with power and freshness the national epic of ancient Israel. The author precedes his translation of each book with brief essays in which he approaches the content from a literary-historical viewpoint. Further and more extensive commentary on each book may be found in the footnotes that accompany nearly every verse, providing readers with context for the stories and grammatical notes on the Hebrew. The latter, while of interest to scholars and those familiar with the stories and the language in which they were originally written, could prove off-putting to casual readers who may not be accustomed to footnotes that, on average, are half a page in length. Most puzzling is the absence of the Hebrew text itself despite commentary devoted to the Hebrew language, an issue consistent throughout Alter's series. Still, readers with no knowledge of Hebrew but curious about meanings in the original text may well find the footnotes appealing.