Exodus : A Translation with Commentary

by Robert Alter

Genres: Judaism

164 pages, Unknown Binding

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

[Jason Friedlander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wrathful God tortures Egyptians with plagues because its pharaoh refuses to free the Israelites. Strangely, God Himself is said to be responsible for “hardening” the pharaoh’s heart, which only brings about worse plagues and even more suffering for the Egyptian people. With enough violence (it ends with murdering firstborn children) the Israelites are eventually freed, but decide to worship a figure of a calf made out of gold, so God threatens to just kill them all. Moses convinces Him that that’s not a good idea because it goes against the whole point of creating them and promising them salvation. God relents, the Israelites are saved. All of that was quite interesting to read. Then the second half is all about building a tabernacle, which I had a difficult time connecting to. Maybe it’s all more beautiful read in Hebrew.

[Chaouki · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems odd after all the insistence on building the wanted tabernacle , there is no tabernacle today. Alot of the rituals seemed to be detrimental to bring about and educate the people that the old testament god wanted. The first half though was extraordinary, the only reason why God gave pharaoh so many opportunities to repent is to show us that some people whom god seems to judge in a succinct way afterwards are like pharoah and as irrevocably corrupted as he was. The Tabernacle part went straight over my head, maybe because it simply wasn't relevant.

[Adam Marquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alter's translation and notes brought clarity to the text which had beneficial effect of closeness to the text; reading Exodus with Alter made made me feel like I was no longer alienated from the text.