Book of Job [Hardcover]

Raymond P. Scheindlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

"The Book of Job" addresses the most disturbing themes in the Western tradition. What is our place in God's creation? Are the good rewarded? The evil punished? Can we grasp the ways of creation or are they beyond the range of our understanding? Job the patient sufferer, the afflicted man whose faith in God is finally rewarded, is a standard figure in Western cultural heritage. But in this translation, a new Job emerges. This is the angry Job, who knows as we do that his suffering is undeserved and who demands an argument with God. God's reply to Job from the storm, indeed the entire circle of speech and response to Job and his friends, is rendered in this work. Issues concerning the text, its meaning and interpretation are addressed in the introduction and notes, which guide the reader through the work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The book of Job addresses eternal questions about humanity's place in God's creation, the presence of evil in the world, God's responsibility for the existence of evil and humans' ability to understand God's ways. Scheindlin, professor of medieval Hebrew literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, offers a new translation of Job. Scheindlin writes in the introduction that he tried to let the text itself suggest its own translation and interfere as little as possible. He wanted to produce a translation that would reflect the poetic values specific to biblical Hebrew. In Scheindlin's translation, Job is an angry yet hopeful character who knows that his suffering is undeserved and demands an audience with God. Thus, Job cries, "Let God weigh me in an honest balance/ He will have to see my innocence./ If only I had someone to hear me!" In Scheindlin's fresh lyrical verse, we can once again feel Job's pain and distress as he attempts to understand why he is suffering.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Scheindlin (medieval Hebrew literature, Jewish Theological Seminary of America) provides a powerful, colloquial translation of the Book of Job, a biblical book that raises important questions about human suffering, the nature of evil, goodness, merit, and justice. Contrary to much contemporary scholarship, Scheindlin's helpful introduction attributes coherence and unity to Job in its final form. This translation seems more direct, contemporary, and forceful than the New International Version (NIV), the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), and the new Jewish Publication Society (JPS) translation. Scheindlin's Job, scandalized by undeserved suffering, angrily calls God to account while courageously facing the disproportion between himself and God. Recommended for seminary and general collections.?Carolyn M. Craft, Longwood Coll., Farmville, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 237 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; Reprint edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393046265
• ISBN-13: 978-0393046267
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #448,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A clear and easy to understand rendition of the Book of Job., September 27, 1998

By 

Kin Hylton (Honolulu, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Book of Job (Hardcover)

The author gives his personal English rendition for the story of Job. He stays away from the literal translation of the Hebrew text. The book is an easy to read and easy to understand poem. Included are a few informative notes that I injoyed reading. I would liked to have seen the book include the Hebrew text in a linear fashion, so it would be easy to know when the author took poetical license in his translation.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understandable rendering of the Biblical Book of Job, September 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Book of Job (Hardcover)

The author, Rabbi Scheindlin, provides clear and informative notes with an easy to understand text. Though it is traditon to consider Job as a fictional character, the notes fairly state that the name is found in "ancient Semitic inscriptions" which possibly makes Job the oldest story of an historical character in the Bible. Older than Abraham by one hundred years. In my reading, I see Job as a rival for the label "first Jew".

I would have liked to see a convenient access to the complete Hebrew text in an appendix.