A renowned poet and biblical scholar translates the great poetry of the Bible, collecting it here in an impressively bound anthology of psalms, songs, prophecies, and proverbs that will appeal to any reader. James Kugel, professor of biblical studies at Harvard University, has taken the Bible's greatest poems and given each of them a dose of fresh thinking and a new translation. Chapter by chapter, Kugel leads readers into a new and sometimes profoundly different translation based on his interpretation of the original Hebrew Bible. As a lover and scholar of many languages, Kugel offers translations that are both eloquent and spiritually stirring. As a result, this is a feast for anyone who treasures beautiful language. But more so, it is a deeply satisfying discussion of beliefs in the biblical world. Kugel's essays boldly venture into the big questions: What does the Bible mean when it talks about people's souls? Where is the soul and what does it do? What is the source of human evil? These expertly written discussions never once bog down the poems. Rather, they bring greater texture and meaning to the ancient words. --Gail Hudson "Mr. Kugel's commentaries... are marvelous--fresh, original, deeply thought, deeply felt. They are the responses to the Bible of a scholar who, far more than just a scholar, is above all a reader and knows that, even more than knowledge, taste and discrimination, the most important thing to bring to a text is oneself: not a part of oneself, but the whole, entirely focused and entirely open, ready to give and take all. To be able to read in this way is a rare gift, and Mr. Kugel, who can also write, has it." -- Hillel Halkin, The Forward, October 20, 1999 James L. Kugel is Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University, and a regular visiting Professor of Biblical Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He is the author of a number of books of biblical scholarship, including How to Read the Bible (2007), for which he won the National Jewish Book Award for best book , The Great Poems of the Bible (1999), and The Bible As It Was (1997). In 2001, Kugel was awarded the prestigious Grawemeyer Prize in Religion. He lives in Jerusalem, Israel, and in Cambridge, Massachusetts. JAMES L. KUGEL Author of the bible as it was