Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings: A Translation with Commentary

by Robert Alter

Robert Alter’s award-winning translation of the Hebrew Bible continues with the stirring narrative of Israel’s ancient history.

To read the books of the Former Prophets in this riveting Robert Alter translation is to discover an entertaining amalgam of hair-raising action and high literary achievement. Samson, the vigilante superhero of Judges, slaughters thousands of Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. David, the Machiavellian prince of Samuel and Kings, is one of the great literary figures of antiquity. A ruthless monarch, David embodies a life in full dimension as it moves from brilliant youth through vigorous prime to failing old age.

Samson and David play emblematic roles in the rise and fall of ancient Israel, a nation beset by internal divisions and external threats. A scattering of contentious desert tribes joined by faith in a special covenant with God, Israel emerges through the bloody massacres of Canaanite populations recounted in Joshua and the anarchic violence of Judges. The resourceful David consolidates national power, but it is power rooted in conspiracy, and David dies bitterly isolated in his court, surrounded by enemies. His successor, Solomon, maintains national unity through his legendary wisdom, wealth, and grand public vision, but after his death Israel succumbs to internal discord and foreign conquest. Near its end, the saga of ancient Israel returns to the supernatural. In Elijah’s fiery ascent to heaven many would find the harbinger of a messiah coming to save his people in their time of need.

Genres: Religion, Judaism, History, Theology, Christianity, Nonfiction, Jewish

1251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2013

About the author

Robert Bernard Alter is an American professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967, and has published many acclaimed works on the Bible, literary modernism, and contemporary Hebrew literature.

Reviews

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does any other text have such a discrepancy between the amount of time generations have devoted to studying it and the actual understanding derived from this huge effort?? Century after century people have been told that these books were God's word, an instruction manual on how to live. Generation after generation, people have lived in houses with copies of the Bible. Family history, marriages, births and deaths were recorded in it. Dedicated missionaries spent lifetimes hard at work at their desks, just so they could translate the ancient Hebrew text into obscure languages. Just what the 19th century Hawaiians made of these brutal tales is beyond me. Did they actually read it? I know intelligent people who defend "Biblical marriage," -- did they actually read about all the concubines? Or was it just a sacred object? So I tried to read it, first as religious guidance, then as poetry and then as history. But I either couldn't follow it, or I just didn't believe it could be saying what I thought it was saying: all that murder, rape, genocide, pillage. As an archivist, I like to get as close to the original text as possible. Robert Alter seemed to be the most qualified guide, and I decided to make one last attempt.

After reading the Five Books of Moses with Robert Alter's commentary, I was addicted and went on to read "Ancient Israel," translations and commentary on Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Only with Alter's footnotes could I make sense out of the narratives. And when the actual text itself is garbled, he points out the likely reasons. For me this time, reading the OT became something of a soap opera with lots of dramatic irony as the reader sees looming disaster, "No! Don't do that!...Oh, no, they did..." There is lots of dual causality, disaster comes because the deity is mad about the worship of idols, and also because of more mundane factors like superior forces. Alter is upfront about the overall effect of the first half of "Ancient Israel" -- ruthlessness, and the general impression made by the second half -- tedium. And " nowhere in the Bible is there a more palpable discrepancy between the values and expectations of the ancient Near Eastern era in which the book was written and those of twenty-first century readers." The story of the defeat of the Canaanites is apparently mythical, not supported by archeological evidence. According to his theory, the genocide against the Canaanites as described with great approval in the Bible, probably never actually happened. The later battles with the Assyrians and Babylonians have more of a basis in fact. Alter's notes put all of these discrepancies and correspondences between text and extra-biblical evidence in context. The Bible's fundamental if brutal honesty however comes out in the deep moral ambiguity of nearly all the great biblical heroes, so even King David, actually especially King David, they all did pretty dastardly things, that is essentially true to human nature.

With Alter's framework, the folklore elements woven into the mythical and historical narratives stand out. Elijah is simply different from any of the other prophets before him. He works wishful-thinking miracles and helps the downtrodden. He miraculously provides food in times of hunger, an early model for the loaves and fishes (like the fairy tale "Tischlein Deck Dich"). Instead of dying, he ascends into heaven. Apparently these features made him the star of Jewish folklore over the centuries. Alter convincingly concludes that Elijah provides the template for many of the Jesus stories of the New Testament. The interconnections are starting to make sense to me. I'm grateful to Alter for using both his erudition and his deep insights to help non-specialists such as myself get a sense of what the OT is all about. I'm not about to give the Bible a rating, that's rather presumptuous, but Alter's notes definitely deserve 5 stars. Worth the time and effort to work through...I'm still not about to use the Bible as a guide to living, but as a guide to human nature, it's all in there.

[Graham Heslop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haven't encountered a more insightful handling of Old Testament narratives

[Nathan Whitley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sally forth and read this translation!

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A readable and up-to-date translation of the "history" books of the Tanakh. An interesting contrast with the traditional Masoretic text. Professor Alter has done his usual bang-up job on handling the Biblical Hebrew and its interpretations.

[Scriptor Ignotus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume of Alter's ongoing translation of the Hebrew scriptures covers the history of the Israelites from the death of Moses to the fall of Israel and Judah at the hands of the Assyrians and Babylonians, respectively. Joshua crosses the Jordan into the promised land, defeats and destroys the native inhabitants, and the Israelites settle in. The wiping out of the Canaanite peoples by the Israelites represents, for many, the most morally questionable if not outright heinous series of events in the Old Testament. Alter offers a very interesting take on this in his introduction. There is virtually nothing in the way of archaeological evidence to support the notion that the Israelites swept into the region and massacred all of the other tribes. The much more likely story is that the Israelites intermingled with the Canaanite population.

The Deuteronomistic writers and editors of the Book of Joshua didn't like this idea, because they wanted to portray the Israelites as an ethnically pure people attached to their singular God, and this portrayal would be undermined if they acknowledged that the Israelites intermarried with the local people and perhaps adopted many of their customs as well. The Deuteronomist's singleminded agenda in promoting the cult of Yahweh over all others in order to prevent the Israelites from sliding into paganism or polytheism resurfaces throughout these books, as any deviation from Yahweh worship, any dabbling into the religion of Baal or any of the other Canaanite deities is accompanied by a loss of godly favor and ill tidings.

Judges portrays a highly-decentralized, anarchic Israel that existed before the rise of the monarchy. It closes with a very Hobbesian statement, "In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes." Repeatedly, the Israelites come under foreign domination, only to have a charismatic leader, anointed by God, emerge to vanquish the enemy and liberate the Israelites. Near the end of the book we get the story of Samson, essentially the Jewish Hercules, who is wantonly violent and aggressive in a manner that surpasses even that of the other "judges" who emerge in the course of the story. Judges also features the (in)famous story of Jael and Sisera, in which Sisera, the fleeing Canaanite captain, takes refuge in Jael's tent and falls asleep, only for Jael to kill him by hammering a tent stake into his head. Brutal.

Alter is right to characterize 1 and 2 Samuel, which cover the story of King David, as the greatest literary achievement in the Hebrew Bible - and, for that matter, one of the greatest of all ancient literature. King Saul, who establishes the monarchy, is sympathetic even as he is ignorant and then insane, while David is ruthless and cunning in order to attain power, only to allow his more vulnerably human side emerge during his long reign. Alter points out that all of David's dialogue during his rise to power can be construed as politically-motivated, until the human side of him emerges after the death of his first son, and especially after the death of Absalom. Despite his heroic status in the annals of Jewish and Christian folklore, David is not a wholly sympathetic character in these books. The episode with Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite is a good example. Uriah the Hittite, having been recalled from the front so that David can seduce his wife, insists on sleeping in the servants quarters because he wouldn't feel right sleeping in a warm, comfortable bed while his comrades in the field were sleeping in tents on the ground. The stoic loyalty of the soldier of foreign origins is juxtaposed poignantly with David's shamelessness.

1 and 2 Kings recount the reign of Solomon, his drift into polytheism (apparently abetted by his numerous wives), and the division of the Davidic Kingdom into two separate kingdoms: Judah and Israel. Jeroboam, the first King of Israel, has an interesting parallel with the later stories about Jesus. After being prophesied as a future king, he is forced to flee to Egypt when Solomon apparently receives word of his ambitions, and hides out there until Solomon's death, just as the Holy Family is said to have taken refuge in Egypt until the death of Herod. A parade of monarchs of Israel and Judah pass before us. The kings of Israel are almost uniformly idolatrous, which seems to be the Deuteronomist's way of explaining why the Kingdom of Israel fell before the Kingdom of Judah. We get Elijah and Elisha's stories, with Elijah doing a David Blaine-esque performance in front of the Baal worshippers by dousing an offering in water three times before calling down fire from the heavens to incinerate it -- and then taking the dismayed Baal worshippers down to the river and killing every single one of them. Elisha revives a dead child on the one hand, and causes bears to come out of the woods and tear apart a group of children on the other. Strange stuff.

2 Kings ends with the destruction of Jerusalem, with the anguish of the Israelites at having their city conquered, their temple destroyed and their sacred objects looted on full display; but take heart! The Israelite kings are recognized as kings within the Babylonian court, and the last Israelite king, taken captive by the Babylonians, is dressed in fine clothing, just as Joseph was when he was released from prison in Egypt in Genesis. We are thus left with a literary light at the end of the tunnel.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bible as a literary work of art; Alter’s masterful tour de force is very accessible yet tantalizingly incisive; absolutely brilliant.

[Michael Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Alter's ongoing translation of the Hebrew Bible is the most important thing to happen to the scriptures in our generation. Alter brings a lifetime of study to the project and a near-infallable sense of the way that both Hebrew verse and Hebrew narrative work. He is also approaching the project as a literary, rather than a theological, translation. Therefore, he is able to use English to invoke senses of the original texts without being bound to any required theological interpretation. This does not mean that he is uninterested in the historical or the theological implications of the texts, only that he draws these out of the narrative the way that we would draw them from Dante or Milton--as the deep motivations of the authors that shaped and constrained their narrative choices.

The texts in this volume divide into three more or less equal parts, each of them characterized by wildly different historical, theological, and narrative assumptions. The first section, comprising Joshua and Judges, alternates between heroic folk tale and "how the elephant got a long nose" type etiological stories. The theology is resolutely Deuteronomistic, which means that it is "Yahweh or the Highway." These are the descriptions of the wars of conquest, during which Yahweh commanded the the Israelites place all non-Israelite residents of Canaan and the surrounding areas under the ban, which required every human being to be killed. It is genocide, pure and simple, and it apparently has the Lord's blessing. In his notes, though, Alter makes a very good case that these horrific acts of genocidal slaughter never happened--they are part of a cultural memory created much later by Yahweh worshipers who were actively trying to stomp out idol worship and were creating a historical memory to support their current goals.

The heart and soul of the book is the story of the Houses of Saul and David, comprising 1 and 2 Samuel and the first two chapters of 1 Kings. In these stories, Alter shows us, without blinking, the brutal realpolitik of the Ancient Hebrew court. David, the center of the story, is a pure political animal who carefully grooms his image and uses a combination of patience and barbaric cruelty to get what he wants. In the process, though, he destroys his own house, even as he sets the foundation for its future rule. In the end, David is not destroyed by his near-perfect Machiavellian instincts, but by the sliver of non-political humanity that remains. It is a tragedy deeper and more universal than anything produced buy the Ancient Greeks. And, as Alter notes, the greatest interpreter of the David story in modern times has been William Faulkner in Abaslom, Absalom--a sentiment that I can appreciate and fully support.

After the tragic masterpiece that is the David Story, the Books of Kings are somewhat anticlimactic. But Alter does a great job of showing how the original text maps a Deuteronomistic morality tale onto a fairly standard set of Near Eastern court annals. Most of the historical events are accurate and easily verifiable from other sources. But the interpretations all steer hard towards the uncompromising Deuteronomist belief in a God of Retribution who rewards or punishes the Israelite nations according to the religious choices of their kings.

For those of us raised in a culture that revered, but did not really study the Old Testament, reading Alter is an amazing experience. He introduces us to people and events that we have always known but never really understood. His translations are clear and readable, and his notes are comprehensive and extremely helpful. Those who read this book will get a good understanding of both the irreducible strangeness of the Ancient Hebrew world, but also of the universality of its stories and the profound humanity of its greatest writers.

[Joshua Pearsall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, much like many of Alter's works, is a very interesting & thought provoking translation & commentary. Certainly plenty of points of disagreement, but I didn't pick up Alter's work to agree with everything he says. Read my other review of Alter's book (I have one on the five books of Moses by Alter) and I share the same thoughts of that work as this one, definitely worth a read if you have the time.

[Daniel Polansky]

'Go and stand on the mountain before the LORD, and, look the LORD is about to pass over, with a great and strong wind tearing apart mountains and smashing rocks before the LORD. Not in the wind is the LORD. And after the wind is an earthquake. Not in the earthquake is the LORD. And after the earthquake—fire. Not in the fire is the LORD. And after the fire, a sound of minute stillness.'

[Dana Kraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of what I wrote in my review of The Five Books of Moses also applies to this as it's a continuation of the translation. A few things that struck me or that I learned from reading this which is the first time I've read these books from beginning to end:

- My previous understanding of David was pretty shallow. I knew about David v Goliath and that he was often referenced as a great king in later Bible stories. It was interesting to see how flawed he was. Alter notes on many occasions how the details of his reign often contradict later descriptions of his greatness and virtue.
- I liked how "human" most of the characters seemed. They struggle with ambition, sexual desire, mercy or revenge, etc.
- The long timeline of these stories struck me and reminds me that God's timeline is different than that of humans. In some cases, the text offers lots of details about one incident and in others there may be 50 words that summarize the entire reign of a king. In many cases, the reward or punishment of a character is only delivered over a span of generations.
- I liked the early part of Judges where there is skepticism about the whole idea of having a king. People clamor for a king and there are those ambitious enough to step forward, but is it a good thing? Judges 9 includes a parable that was spoken when the people first proclaimed a king. It has stuck with me:
"Listen to me, O notables of Shechem, that God may listen to you. Once upon a time the trees went to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us,' And the olive tree said, 'Have I left off my rich oil, for which God and men honor me, that I should go sway over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, 'Go, you, reign over us.' And the fig tree said to them, 'Have I left off my sweetness and my goodly yield that I should go sway over the trees?' And the trees said to the vine, 'Go, you, reign over us.' And the vine said to them, 'Have I left off my new wine, that gladdens God and men, that I should go sway over the trees?' And all the trees said to the thornbush, 'Go, you, reign over us.' And the thorn bush said to the trees, 'If you are really about to anoint me king over you, come shelter in my shade. And if not a fire shall come out from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon."

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really reviewing Robert Alter's translation and commentary of these alien and in many ways horrendous books (though, with what's going on in the world at the moment, maybe not so alien). I have reviewed all the books separately.

What this really reveals in this series of books, collated by the Deuteronomic Historian (and in the case of Joshua, almost entirely written and made up by him), is that the history of Ancient Israel was filled with psychopaths, adulterers, polygamists, sexual abusers and rapists (or whom David seems to be one of the worst); and that God was justifiably angry with everyone, but very often kills indiscriminately or a couple of generations too late.

How these books have been turned into Sunday School moral lessons, I do not know. I suspect, reading some of the comments on Goodreads, that people still read these books without actually reading what's there.

What Alter manages to do is to show us what IS there. Sometimes the official Hebrew text is mangled, and he uses early translations to get us back to what the original authors wanted to say. Though "original authors" is a difficult concept. The Samuel books seem to have had at least four authors, and at least two editors, all with their own method and motives. The person Alter calls the "David author" clearly thought David was a powerful shit, with very few redeeming features, but other narratives and folk tales and official documents have been squeezed in by an editor, and the the DH adds a religious commentary that bears almost no resemblance to the story and points out how wonderful and holy David was. It's like someone taking Russell Miller's Bare Faced Messiah and, without changing the text, adding in commentary explaining how all this shows that L Ron Hubbard was really a great bloke, and God was with him the whole time.

Where the DH is given free reign to write his own material (pretty much the whole of Joshua, which contains no historical material at all), he writes a book justifying genocide. Nice bloke.

This is a fascinating translation and commentary (Alter really knows his stuff) and, if you think you know these stories, read this: I don't agree with him on everything, but that means I'm probably wrong.

[Al Durgin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with Alter's translation and commentary on the Torah, this work on Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings is a treasure. Alter's translation is incredibly well done and he provides incredible details about the manner in which the text is reconstructed from various sources including Hebrew texts, and various ancient translation. He is not afraid to differentiate between translations that he is confident of and the places where he (and others) is making "best" or "personally preferred" guesses. Alter definitely knows his stuff and absolutely gushes about the story of King David, calling one of the best examples of ancient biographical storytelling. He is impressed with the author(s) willingness to take David from ruddy youth to aged fragility while exploring both the high points and low points. At the same time, Alter allows his feelings about the narrative characters to leak in to his comments here and there without distracting from the narrative itself. These writings are also better connected to known history and Alter has a good grasp of the places where these narratives intersect with other sources of history.

I have to add that, having read these before, I was struck this time through by the author(s) frames for what was judged good and what was judged bad. It is evident that under some kings, kingdom expansion was attributed to the blessing of God while, for others (evil kings), the expansion is noted but left without attribution. Similarly, bad things that happen under "bad" kings are seen as acts of God as retributive justice, but under "good" kings those same kind of misfortunes are attributed to the misbehavior of previous kings.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a continuation of Robert Alter’s outstanding translation of the Hebrew Bible. These books continue the narrative of the Five Books of Moses, telling the history of the Jewish people after arriving in the Promised Land. As with all his translations, this provides an outstanding understanding of the context, history and culture in which the books were written and about which they describe, as well as the philological and literary challenges in the translation.

The five-star ranking belongs to the translation and footnotes more so than the underlying works. While the David story is interesting, the other books are mostly brittle historical documents of a long forgotten past. But history for the ancient Jewish people was uniquely important because the history of the Jewish people is inextricably tied to the history of their religion, particularly from Exodus on. The founding of the religion is the founding of the nation. And the success of the nation is tied to the devotion of people to god.

That said, the books of the Former Prophets (as this section of the Hebrew Bible is called) are interesting as archeological documents. As literature, not so much. I don’t think I’d ever re-read any sections of this book for pleasure except perhaps the David section.

So if you are looking for a translation of the Former Prophets, I highly recommend this book. Alter has again performed an outstanding service for contemporary readers.

Here are my thoughts on the individual books:

Joshua – After Moses’ death, it was up to Joshua to lead the Jewish people over the Jordan and into the Promised Land, and the first half of this book tells of the defeat and destruction of the native population upon their arrival. It includes an accounting of the men, women, children, donkeys, oxen, sheep and flocks slaughtered under god’s orders. At Ai, alone, they killed 12,000 people. (8:25) For those of you keeping score, which apparently the writers of the Joshua were, they applied the ban – as this slaughter is called – to 31 kingdoms/city-states. (Book 12)

Having conquered all/most of the Promised Land, the rest of the book covers the mind-numbing bureaucratic allotment of the land to the various tribes. There’s no need to read this section unless you enjoy light reading at your local recorder of deeds.

This book also includes the fall of Jericho, as well as the story of Achen. When a town was under the ban it usually meant that all breathing creatures were to be slaughtered. (Animals were sometimes spared, but not always.) At Jericho, god also wanted all plunder/riches to go to the Temple. Apparently Achen decided to keep a coat and some gold and silver for himself. He later confessed his crime, and he, his wife, his sons, his daughters, his ox and his donkey were stoned to death, then burned, then apparently stoned again. (7:19-26)

When the ban was applied next at Ai, the fighters were allowed to keep their plunder. So timing is everything. There is a continuing theme in the Hebrew Bible of the ban causing people a lot of problems (i.e., Numbers 31:15 and Saul’s fall into disfavor – see below). (02/14)


Judges – This is a miscellany of violent stories telling of Israel’s history following Joshua’s death. From men having their big toes and thumbs cut off (1:6), to a guy having a tent peg driven through his head (4:21), to a woman being gang raped to death (19:27), to the Israelis applying the ban to one of their own tribes (20:48), this book of the Bible covers the full gamut of outrageous violence. (A guy also offers up his daughter to be gang raped [19:24], but the mob turns him down. And he’s one of the good guys in these books.)

I guess the theme is: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes.” (21:22) And every man had some disturbing ideas of what was right.

Deborah, Gideon, Samson and the Levite with a concubine get longer treatments, but most of the book is a collection of brief histories of Israeli protectors/heroes who rose up from the people to defeat neighboring tribes. (02/14)

Samuel – You can see my review of this book here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (08/11)


Kings - The Book of Kings completes the story of David with his death, and then covers the life of Solomon. After that, it tells of the kings that followed in a rather episodic manner similar to the book of Judges. The book ends with the collapse of the northern and southern kingdoms and their exile to Babylon.

After the Solomon story, the book interprets the nation’s success by its fidelity to god. When the nation prospered, it because of the faithfulness of its leader and people. When it suffered, it was because of the evil of the people. (Spoiler: There was a lot more evil than good.)

The connection is somewhat strained though. Manasseh was one of the rulers of Judah that god most despised, yet he reigned a hearty 55 years. (21:1) And despite Josiah’s fidelity to god, it was to him that god predicted Judah would fall. (23:26) Apparently he was still upset with Manasseh. (Josiah only ruled 31 years. [22:1]) For some reason, god can shoot fire from the sky to kill soldiers for Elijah, but he can’t kill one evil king.

But interpreting history through a moral or religious lens is a hazardous undertaking. Ahab, another ruler despised by god, is allowed to have a long reign because god decides he will instead bring evil upon Ahab’s son. (1:21:25) That sounds fair. And Amaziah did “what was right in the eyes of the lord” and was rewarded with some kind of horrible skin disease that caused him to be quarantined his entire life. (2:15:6) (Damn you “sacrifices and burning of incense on the high places”!)

The Book of Kings also tells the story of Elijah and Elisha. Both, like Jesus, were miracle-working prophets – but they had a particularly bad attitude. Elisha could miraculously purify water (2:2:22), but if you made fun of him for being bald, you were in trouble (as the 42 boys he had killed by a bear found out). (2:2:kk24)

By the way, in the Solomon story you’ll find the Biblical definition of a marriage between a man and woman, and another woman, and another woman, and another woman, and another woman, and another woman … keep going until you hit 700 women. Of course, a husband like Solomon had needs so he also had 300 concubines. (1:11:3) (4/14)

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book from Mr. Alter that I read and it prompted me to make a dedicated effort to collect all his translations and works on biblical literature.

Alter's translations of the Hebrew Bible purport to be translation and commentary, but don't expect anything remotely close to (for example) the Anchor Bible; we are given introductions and translation footnotes. This may be a quibble with terminology only.

Alter's comments are keen and insightful, drawing to the surface the cream of earlier interpretations, peculiarities in the text, and literary devices present in the Hebrew and obscured by many English renderings. Alter's profound respect for the text and conservatism is evident on nearly every page he writes, never wasting precious paper on 'pop theories', never succumbing to self-indulgence.

I will say I disagreed with some of his conclusions, namely isolating David's story to the self-contained Deuteronomistic History without the tempering of the Psalms. As such we get the ambition-driven David, the Machiavellian Prince. I understand Alter's reasons, but I disagree. Likewise I don't think Bathsheba was a willing conspirator in the same way Tamar was not.

While its own translation, the text is most certainly in the King James tradition, a translation Alter adores while acknowledging its deficits. The text is clear, stately, and elevated without pretension, and stands alongside other more literary-oriented translations such as the English Standard Version.

A final word is that Alter may emend the text more than some might like--but, as stressed before, Alter is conservative and has reasons behind his translation philosophy.

[M Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume in Alter's fine translation with footnotes of the Old Testament. I've dipped in and out of his volume "The Five Books of Moses" for several years and found it helpful in study and sermon writing. Because I've done very little in the "Former Prophets," I decided to go ahead and read this volume straight through and am glad I did so. The subtle shift in underlying theology and understanding of history are fascinating and there were many stories that I had forgotten or got new insight into thanks to Alter's scholarship.

[Lucas Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow whenever I read a translation an commentary by Alter I feel as though I walk away with a totally new perspective on all of these timeless stories I've read so often. I highly reccommend this book for anyone who's after a critical literary translation of the Former Prophets! Such a good book!

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was assigned reading for class. I found it more difficult than reading one of the more common translations (e.g. ESV/NIV/NKJV).
There were interesting and insightful notes especially with regards to the original text.
However, note that Alter does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, nor even of the basic accuracy of the text.

[Rick Folker · Rating 5 out of 5]

a thorough and exhaustive commentary on the subject

[Madison Boboltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other than his portrayal of Bathsheba as an unfaithful conspirator, this translation with commentary made my read of these books feel like a new and refreshing experience.

[Rodney Bond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Medieval historical biography. The story reminds me of a daytime soap opera.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author and his work.

[Lee Behlman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alter’s footnotes are chatty, cranky, and altogether brilliant. He’s great company.

[5greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - always readable; useful and affable footnotes; proper mad stuff and then the Saul/David epic, pitched rather like a gangster saga.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd part of Alter’s translation of the Old Testament was every bit as good if not better. Dedicated now to reading all the rest of his OT translations.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another outstanding translation

Robert Alter has done it again! This translation, with commentary, of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings is up to the high standard set by his Pentateuch translation. As usual, the commentary provides a wealth of information regarding translation decisions, history, and of course the narrative designs and decisions of the writers/compilers. Being part of the Deuteronomistic history, it continues along the same lines as it's namesake book in terms of the conception of Yahweh as the ultimate cause. And as with the Pentateuch, it was fascinating to see the different layers and how beautifully they were fit together. The only minor complaint I have is the slightly larger font and a handful of links that didn't go where they were supposed to go. Aside from that, I cannot recommend this book enough!

[Charles Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

My intro to Alter's work was his work on Biblical Poetry, pretty soon I wanted to get my hands on anything else he'd done. This is his translation of certain OT texts, and of particular benefit are the many footnotes he includes with his work. This is a good companion piece to any "regular" Bible reading, as it helps shift our attention to alternative or additional points of view.

[José Monico · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is truly a spectacle in itself; extrapolating, chances are all of Mr. Alter's translation-interpretation readings are superb. Ancient Israel focuses on the history books of the chosen people through the biblical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. The translations are contemporary, and really not the main focus of this tome. Like with most practices: the complexity of the bible is outstanding, enigmatic and frankly, out of reach for most people (as a standalone). As for the last statement, most of us tend to substitute that difficulty through liturgy. But I find that is a poor replacement for a laymen-scholarly understanding of the bible. Of course that isn't the reason as to why most of us read the bible: reading enforces placed beliefs founded on indoctrination; making practical understanding mute, and irrelevant. And for that, it's best to look at more pastoral readings.

The polarizing, and most-memorable are the obvious and enlightening interpretations of this incredible Hebrew scholar. His command of the Old Testament literature, nuance and formulaic themes is unprecedented. If you have even a remote interest in what the biblical narrative attempts to convey, I would implore one to never start raw with a family bible. Again, begin either through liturgical or pragmatic focuses-- it's best to be guided with minute detail on each passage. Not only for proper understanding, but - if you are a devotee - wholesome spiritual fulfillment.

Speaking generally about Alter's interpretation, every fragment presents a mixture of contemporary issues, syntactic anomalies, version control, proper clarification and the added bonus of a welcoming whimsical humor. Consolidating his additions to this 6-book epic compounds the devastation, enhances the adventure and truly reveals the history.

[Russell Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic production by Robert Alter. Just like his Five Books of Moses, I learned so much from this book, which opened up for me in multiple ways the remarkable history which forms a backdrop to so many of the teachings, presumptions, complications, and perspectives of the whole Judeo-Christian world. Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets covers Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, thus giving us the whole inconsistent story of the conquest of Palestine, the rise and fall of both King David and King Solomon, and the tales of Samson, Elijah, Elisha, and many other notable figures along the way. I really enjoyed, in particular, the way Alter's careful translations and notations allowed me, as a reader, to track the slow disappearance of mythological connections to the Age of the Patriarchs in the way the Israelites understood themselves (or later wrote about how they understood themselves); as those connections made their increasingly rare re-appearances in the narrative, constructed as it almost certainly was from so many oral and literary sources, Alter helps us see how they had been re-purposed, and fit into an emerging central story of the children of Israel's progress. But beyond this fascinating rhetorical archaeology, there are lots of wonderful stories: Joshua at Jericho, Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba and Uriah and Nathan, Ahab and Jezebel and Elijah. I'm kind of sorry to get past all this; as I continue my slow march through the Old Testament, I'm now heading into Chronicles, and much of this ancient historical background is now established--and Alter doesn't have a translation to help me out at this point. I hope he gets finished with his work on Isaiah before I get there!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This translation of the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, and 2 Samuel is great at explaining and clarifying some of the biblical quirks and questions that are part of the modern reader's approach to these ancient texts. Of course the footnotes are the most valuable part, as the were in Alter's The Five Books of Moses. 1 and 2 Chronicles are referenced in the translation of Samuel but are not explored on their own, as so much of the material in them is redundant to Samuel. Alter is a fine scholar, and I look forward to reading his additional translations. He tries very hard not to impose his theology on the reader. Nevertheless, he gets tripped up by any suggestion that God could have a body or look like a human being (scriptural references that "anthropomorphize" God are treated as purely symbolic) and he often dismisses the idea that God could speak directly to His prophets, trying instead to explain how a prophesy must have been received through a series of yes and no answers as the result of questions to an oracle. But we all have our limits and Alter is brilliant in his cross-referencing, explanations of most things, and identification of themes, as well as bringing in the best of the work of other biblical scholars.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

The observation I made whilst reading through 1 Kings 1–11 serves just as well for a review of the whole work:

Alter is uncharacteristically dense in his reading of 1 Kgs 3–11 and doesn't seem to see any cracks showing in the portrayal of Solomon until a sudden reversal in ch. 11. His The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel, which was previously published and forms the core of this work, is gold. Unfortunately the material on Joshua and Kings, and a lot of that on Judges, seems hurried and lacking by comparison.

As an extended case study of how Alter's principles in The Art of Biblical Narrative work out on whole portions of scripture, this is helpful. But his application of his own approach is very uneven. Nevertheless, there is helpful material here, and this volume is not significantly more expensive than his David Story by itself, so it's worth picking up this one, instead.