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

Robert Alter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2007

A brilliant new translation and commentary of one of the Bible's most cherished and powerful books.

Like the Five Books of Moses a cornerstone of the scriptural canon, the Book of Psalms has been a source of solace and joy for countless readers over millennia. The cleansing purity of its images invites reflection and supplication in times of sorrow. The musicality of its powerful rhythms moves readers to celebration of good tidings. So today as it has been throughout our past, this is a book to be cherished as the grounding for our daily lives.

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. Robert Alter's The Book of Psalms captures the simplicity, the physicality, and the coiled rhythmic power of the Hebrew, restoring the remarkable eloquence of these ancient poems. His learned and insightful commentary shines a light on the obscurities of the text.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Alter takes us back to the essence of the meaning. . . . Everything is clearer, seeming to have been rinsed not in the baptismal waters of the New Testament but in the life-giving water of the desert.” --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Robert Alter was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Lifetime Achievement and the PEN Center Literary Award for Translation. He is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and has published many acclaimed works on the Bible, literary modernism, and contemporary Hebrew literature.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (September 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393062260
• ISBN-13: 978-0393062267
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book of Psalms-Alter's Trns.: A Critical Review, October 13, 2007

By 

Andre Lawrence (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary (Hardcover)

Update: Jan. 2010
I wrote to Prof. Alter to inquire about any other biblical translations because, quite frankly, his translation (and, Prof. Everett Fox' translation) are some of the most exciting and intriguing books to be published in any genre. Here is Prof. Alter's response:

Dear Mr. Lawrence,

Many thanks for your enthusiastic response. The next installment of my Bible translations, The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary will be published in October [2010].

All best,

Robert Alter
***** ***** *****

I've come to expect excellence from Professor Alter, especially after first reading The NY Times review of his "The Five Books of Moses" (Sept. 2004). It was a wonderful translation. I then purchased his translations of Genesis and The David Story based on (I & II Samuel), both books read like a novel. The David Story, in particular, I found to be an exceptionally vivid portrait of David, although I don't agree with Prof. Alter's conservative supposition of David's relationship with Michal and Jonathan. Minor point, but usually Alter, the intellectual, in his annotations is known to challenge orthodoxy. The Book of Psalms, although not a biographical sketch, is written in the typical Alter style.

Take for instance a troubling Psalm for translation. Psalm 2: A declaration of God's dominion.

KJV
Serve The Lord with fear/ and rejoice with trembling/Kiss The Son, lest he be angry...

Artscroll, Tehillim (2006)
Serve The Lord with awe/That you may rejoice, When there is trembling...

Alter's Trns
Worship the Lord in fear/ and exult in trembling/ With purity be armed...


The strength of Alter's writings is, indeed, by his willingness to employ by etymology and analytical reasoning (and not by tradition) to find some satisfactory conclusion. This is what separates Alter from the bunch. All of this comes to focus when Alter stops to talk about the root meaning of words and then transposes them in familiar territory.

Psalm 27:1

REB
The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?

JPS (1917,85)
Adonai, is my light and my life. Whom shall I fear?

Alter's
The Lord is my light and my rescue. Whom should I fear?

It is in these moments, that Alter's vision provokes deep thought when considering historical usage of words. Take for instance, the meaning of the word, "salvation." Here's Alter's comments:

"Salvation is the term that the translators in 1611 chose to represent the Hebrew yeshu'ah, and it has shown more than a little persistence in the various modern versions...[and] comes to designate a global process of messianic redemption. But in Psalms, this noun and its cognate verb hoshi'a are strictly directed to the here and now. Hoshi'a means to get someone out of a tight fix, to rescue him. When the tight fix involves the threat of enemies on the battlefield, yeshu'ah can mean `victory.' More commonly, both the noun and the verb indicate `rescue.'

In Hebrew, there are two words for the familiar English equivalent, "salvation." As Rabbi Avi Weiss of South Florida once commented, there is a distinct difference between what is commonly held as an understanding of the term and it's true meaning as both relates to being `saved:' Hatzalah and yeshu'ah. "Hatzalah requires no action on the part of the person being saved. Yeshu'ah, on the other hand, is the process whereby the recipient of the salvation participates in helping him or herself."

I love this book already. The book is noticeably light for a book about 500 pages. The text is black (about 14pt) with the annotations (about 12pt.) on cream colored paper and has a red placeholder that Professor Alter should have insisted on when WW Norton published "The Five Books." Anyway, differences in opinion is always a good thing: it forces you to re-think and verify what you hold to be true. This translation will definitely challenge you.

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Immediacy, December 15, 2007

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary (Hardcover)

I've been going through a patch of bad health lately. To help ease my way, some friends were kind enough to give me Robert Alter's translations of the Psalms. They didn't know that I'm a fan of Alter's earlier Five Books of Moses translation. I was delighted to receive their gift.

I've been reading the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) translations of the psalms for so long that they've become second nature to me. But Alter's renderings have an immediacy that really does bring a sense of vitality, of expectancy, of being-there-in-the-moment, that awakens both the senses and the heart.

Take the well known Quemadimodum, Psalm 42. The BCP's translation of the beginning is this:

As the deer longs for the water brooks,
so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

Here's Alter's translation:

As a deer yearns for streams of water,
so I yearn for You, O God.

My whole being thirsts for God,
for the living God.

When shall I come and see
the presence of God?

The BCP version has a lovely, contemplative rhythm. But Alter's version has an edge that expresses not just longing but almost a demand. It's an interesting change of pace, and one that invites a different set of responses and prayers.

Alter's commentary to his translations is graceful and informative, and not--thank God!--heavy-handed and pedantic. I generally distrust commentary attached to translated poetry. But Alter's usually enhances rather than distracts.

This translation is a wonderful gift that Alter has given us all. And my copy of his translation is a wonderful gift from my friends. Thank you!

68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To come closer to the Hebrew original, September 15, 2007

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary (Hardcover)

Robert Alter the great master- critic of understanding the Bible as literary text here puts his considerable knowledge of Biblical poetics and translation techniques to use in an effort to capture the compactness, and rhythm of the Hebrew original. Alter's aim is to give us a translation closer to the source than any done before.
In doing so he faced many problems one of them of course being the canonical place the 'King James Version' has in the hearts of many lovers of the Bible. Alter handles this in varying ways. In Psalm 23 he leaves the famous opening "The Lord is my Shepherd' in part because he could find no way of compacting the Hebrew original which is three words only. Later on in the other most well- known line of the poem he translates in place of "Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." ,"Though I walk in the vale of death's shadow/I fear no harm." Though Alter's translation may be here more accurate, it is difficult not to feel the impossibility of improving upon a 'line' which has in itself become part of the English tradition in Literature, and which is so deep in the hearts and minds of many readers.
Alter is knowledgeable, skillful and his work has true literary power. It is a translation which definitely adds to the tradition of translations of what is arguably the greatest and most meaningful personal religious poetry ever written.
His commentary is in itself a small masterwork which will deeply enrich the understanding of all who read ,love, and our strengthened by 'Tehillim'.