The Book of Psalms

Reviews

"You think you know these texts . . . until you read Alter, who reignites their beauty in bracing and unexpected ways." — Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

"Alter is musically and poetically sensitive.... [He] takes us back to the essence of the meaning." — James Wood, The New Yorker

"Extraordinary.... We never forget, with Alter's Psalms, that the text we are reading is the work of human hands—not Holy Writ, but something at once less and more than that, great poetry." — Adam Kirsch, New Republic

"A considerable achievement.... Alter holds me to his darkly economical texts." — Harold Bloom, New York Review of Books

"It is impossible to overstate the depth, the versatility, and the value of Alter's contribution." — Barbara Berman, San Francisco Chronicle

"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." — Mark Doty, Los Angeles Times

"Every reader of this translation will be led towards fresh thoughts and will discover favorites that inspire the imagination in new, rich ways." — Walter Brueggemann, Christian Century

"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." — Jewish Book World

"The achievement of this new translation is to present the Book of Psalms as a wonder of ancient literature." — The Tablet