Carol Newsom illuminates the relation between the aesthetic forms of Job and the claims made by its various characters. Her innovative approach makes possible a new understanding of the unity of the book that rejects its dismantling in historical criticism and the flattening of the text that characterizes many final form readings. Additionally, she rehabilitates the moral perspectives represented by certain voices of the book that modern critics have treated with disdain.

From the simple and beautiful language of the prose tale, to the verbal fireworks of the dialogue between Job and his friends, to the haunting beauty of the poem on wisdom and the sublime poetics of the divine speeches, this book provides an intense encounter with the aesthetic resources of Hebrew verbal art. In this brilliant new study, Carol Newsom illuminates the relation between the aesthetic forms of the book and the claims made by its various characters. Her innovative approach makes possible a new understanding of the unity of the book of Job; she rejects the dismantling of the book by...

The Women's Bible Commentary is a trusted, classic resource for biblical scholarship, written by some of the best feminist scholars in the field today. This twentieth anniversary edition features brand new or thoroughly revised essays to reflect newer thinking in feminist interpretation and hermeneutics. It comprises commentaries on every book of the Bible, including the apocryphal books; essays on the reception history of women in the Bible; and essays on feminist critical method. The contributors raise important questions and explore the implications of how women and other...