A Modern Rendering of the Psalms

Book excerpt: The Psalms, from the Jewish and Christian Bibles is one of the key texts of world literature. However, there are several impediments for most readers who approach this work, including archaic language translations that do not resonate with contemporary English speakers. The existing translated prosody is also rather stuffy. This book offers a compact apparatus for reading this text which includes discussion of manuscript sources, description of places and events alluded to, which are often beyond the ken of ordinary readers, and provides a practical “content-oriented index”, which allows the inquirer to go directly to psalms that address particular practical problems in living-in-the-world, and a select bibliography of current material for further study. These devices will assist the student and the general reader who wish to know more as they explore this historically significant text.