{"id":40433,"date":"2024-05-30T23:26:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T03:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40433"},"modified":"2024-05-30T23:26:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T03:26:58","slug":"review-of-the-book-of-psalms-a-translation-with-commentary-by-robert-alter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40433","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary, by Robert Alter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/book_of_psalms_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/book_of_psalms_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"166\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-40468\" \/><\/a><em>The Book of Psalms<\/p>\n<p>A Translation with Commentary<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Robert Alter<\/p>\n<p>W. W. Norton &#038; Company, 2007.  516 pages.<br \/>\nReview written November 8, 2021, from my own copy<br \/>\nStarred Review<\/p>\n<p>I purchased this translation of Psalms after reading Robert Alter\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/art_of_bible_translation.html\">Notes on Biblical Translation<\/a><\/em>, because I\u2019m attempting to write my own book about Psalms.<\/p>\n<p>This translation isn\u2019t going after easy English reading.  He\u2019s going after the closest English version of what\u2019s in the Hebrew text.  The notes tell you about the many places where the actual Hebrew original isn\u2019t clear, or where decisions had to be made about translating.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t recommend this for casual inspirational reading of Psalms.  But for those who want to study Scripture, there\u2019s a wealth of material here to increase your understanding of what the Psalms contained in the original language.<\/p>\n<p>I went through the book one Psalm at a time, reading the Psalm translation through, then reading through with the notes.  There are extensive notes on each Psalm.<\/p>\n<p>This book broadened my understanding of what we know about the original text of Psalms.  Reading a new translation added beauty and insight to my experience of Psalms.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0393337049\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/book_of_psalms.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/book_of_psalms.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p>What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Book of Psalms A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter W. W. Norton &#038; Company, 2007. 516 pages. Review written November 8, 2021, from my own copy Starred Review I purchased this translation of Psalms after reading Robert Alter\u2019s Notes on Biblical Translation, because I\u2019m attempting to write my own book about Psalms. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,2,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-nonfiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40433"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43850,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40433\/revisions\/43850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}