The Book of the Twelve Prophets

by David R. Slavitt

This is a glittering new translation of the portion of the Hebrew Bible known as the Book of the Twelve Prophets, or the Twelve "Minor" Prophets. In the Bible, the books of the prophets are arranged in rough order of length. The present group of writings thus appears after the so-called "major" prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel), and includes the much shorter texts of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. At the time when all biblical books were written on scrolls, these twelve brief prophetic texts were traditionally written on a single scroll, and so came to be considered a single book. "Minor" with respect to length only, they are from the literary point of view some of the most interesting texts in the Bible--passionate, visionary, and written with genuine literary sophistication. David Slavitt's brilliant modern translation breathes fresh life into these powerful ancient texts.

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

David Rytman Slavitt was an American writer, poet, and translator, the author of more than 100 books.
Slavitt has written a number of novels and numerous translations from Greek, Latin, and other languages. Slavitt wrote a number of popular novels under the pseudonym Henry Sutton, starting in the late 1960s. The Exhibitionist (1967) was a bestseller and sold over four million copies. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus. His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961. He worked as a writer and film critic for Newsweek from 1958 to 1965.
According to Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less." Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a beautiful translation and I am enriched by the words of the prophets, again.