The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary [Paperback]

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. AltersYou think you know these texts . . . until you read Alter, who reignites their beauty in bracing and unexpected ways.Alter is musically and poetically sensitive.... [He] takes us back to the essence of the meaning.Extraordinary.... We never forget, with Alter's Psalms, that the text we are reading is the work of human handsnot Holy Writ, but something at once less and more than that, great poetry.A considerable achievement.... Alter holds me to his darkly economical texts.It is impossible to overstate the depth, the versatility, and the value of Alter's contribution.One of the best outcomes of Alter's translation is a sense of an abrupt, muscular intensity; he restores to the Psalms a kind of strangeness that emanates from an encounter with a culture we recognize yet is distinctly alien to us, far removed in time and frame of mind.Every reader of this translation will be led towards fresh thoughts and will discover favorites that inspire the imagination in new, rich ways.In his compelling and swiftly moving translations, Alter has thrust the reader back to the place where the monotheistic religions were born out of even more ancient beginnings.The achievement of this new translation is to present the Book of Psalms as a wonder of ancient literature.One of