On Old Testament Poetry


Recommended Books

Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry, Basic Books, 1985.****
Adele Berlin
, The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism (Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature), Indiana University Press, 1992.****
________ "Introduction to Hebrew Poetry" in New Interpreter's Bible, vol. IV, Abingdon, 1996. ****
Harold Fisch, Poetry with a Purpose: Biblical Poetics and Interpretation (Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature), Indiana University Press, 1988.
Peter Enns and Doug Green,
Poets, Westminster Media, tape series
Daniel Grossberg
, Centripetal and Centrifugal Structures in Biblical Poetry (SBL Mono, 39), Scholars Press, 1989. ****
James L. Kugel,
The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History, Yale University Press, 1981. ***1/2
M. O'Connor and B. Waltke,
Hebrew Verse Structure, Eisenbrauns, 1999. (second edition) ****
D. L. Peterson and H. R. Richards, Interpreting Hebrew Poetry (Guides to Biblical Scholarship), Fortress, 1992. ****
Wilfred G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to Its Techniques (JSOT Sup, 26), Eisenbrauns, 1985. ****
Ernst R. Wendland (ed.), Discourse Perspectives on Hebrew Poetry in the Scriptures (UBS Monograph, 7), United Bible Societies, 1994. (compilation)

Books on Exegesis

Jan P. Fokkelman, Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible: At the Interface of Hermeneutics & Structural Analysis (Vol. 1), Van Gorcum, 1997. ****
________ Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible: At the Interface of Prosody & Structural Analysis (Vol. 2), Van Gorcum, 1999. ****
________ Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible (Vol. 3), Van Gorcum, 2001.

Recommended Articles

Adele Berlin, "The Grammatical Aspect of Biblical Parallelism" in Beyond Form Criticism: Essays in Old Testament Literary Criticism
____ (Sources for Biblical and Theological Study, 2), ed. P. R. House, Eisenbrauns, 1992: 311-348.
a revolutionary article based on Roman Jakobson's important literary critical insights; previously published in her Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism,
Indiana University Press, 1985, pp. 31-63,144-146.

________ "On Reading Biblical Poetry: The Role of Metaphor" in Congress Volume: Cambridge 1995 (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, 66)
____ ed. J. A. Emerton, E. J. Brill, 1997: 25-36.
________ "Motif and Creativity in Biblical Poetry," Prooftexts 3 (1983): 231-241.
Aloysius Fitzgerald, "Hebrew Poetry" in The New Jerome Study Bible, Prentice Hall, 1990: 201-208.
John H. Stek, "The Stylistics Of Hebrew Poetry," Calvin Theological Journal 9 (1974) 15-30.


Other Books of Interest

Terence Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry: A Grammatical Approach to the Stylistic Study of the Hebrew Prophets, Biblical Institute
____ Press, 1978.
Frank Moore Cross Jr., et al, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBL Dissertation, 21), Scholars Press, 1975.
Mitchell Dahood, "The Grammar of the Psalter" in The Anchor Bible: Psalms 101-150, Doubleday, 1970.
Elaine R. Follis (ed.), Directions in Hebrew Poetry (JSOT Sup, ), JSOT Press, 1987.
David Noel Freedman, Pottery, Poetry and Prophecy, Eisenbrauns, 1980.
Stephen A. Geller (ed.), Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry (Harvard Semitic Monographs, 20), Scholars Press, 1979.
Stanley Gevritz, Patterns in the Early Poetry of Israel, University of Chicago Press, 1973.
George Buchanan Gray, The Forms of Hebrew Poetry, Ktav Publishing House, 1972.
Joze Krasovec, Antithetic Structure in Biblical Hebrew Poetry (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, 35), E. J. Brill, 1984.
James L. Kugel, The Great Poems of the Bible: A Reader's Companion With New Translations, Free Press, 1999.
Willem van der Meer and Johannes C. de Moor (eds.), The Structural Analysis of Biblical and Canaanite Poetry (JSOT Sup, 74), Sheffield
____Academic Press, 1988.
Johannes C. de Moor and Wilfred G. E. Watson (eds.), Verse in Ancient Near Eastern Prose (Alter Orient und Altes Testament, 43),
____Neukirchener Verlag, 1993.
David E. Orton, Poetery in the Hebrew Bible: Selected Studies from Vetus Testamentum, Brill Academic, 2000.
D. L. Petersen and K. H. Richards, Interpreting Hebrew Poetry (Guides to Biblical Scholarship: Old Testament), Augsburg Fortress, 1992.
William R. Watters, Formula Criticism and the Poetry of the Old Testament, Walter de Gruyter, 1976.

Articles:

Joseph Blenkinsopp, "The Stylistics of Old Testament Poetry," Biblica 44.3 (1963): 352-358.
David Toshio Tsumura, "Inserted Bicolon, the AXYB pattern, in Amos 1:5 and Psalm 9:7," Vetus Testamentum 38 (1988): 234-236.
________ "Literary Insertion (AXB pattern) in Biblical Hebrew," Vetus Testamentum 33 (1983): 468-482.
Hermanus W. M. van Grol (tr. W. Quarles van Ufford), "Paired Tricola in the Psalms, Isaiah and Jeremiah," JSOT 25 (1983): 55-73.