David, Done Right

The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel, by Robert Alter (Norton, 448 pp., $30)

THIS is a remarkable new translation of the Biblical books of First and Second Samuel. Robert Alter is exactly right about this story: It is “one of the most astounding pieces of narrative that have come down to us from the ancient world.” He is exactly right about English Bible translations, which should render faithfully “the powerful cadences of the Hebrew” and capture “small but significant modulations in diction in the biblical language”; such translations necessarily entail “a high degree of literalism.” He is right about the central importance of the translation itself versus the scholarly exoskeleton that supports it: His introduction is short and spare; his terse commentary is a mere “handmaiden” (as he says) to his translation.

DG

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David Gelernter

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The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel, by Robert Alter (Norton, 448 pp., $30)

THIS is a remarkable new translation of the Biblical books of First and Second Samuel. Robert Alter is exactly right about this story: It is “one of the most astounding pieces of narrative that have come down to us from the ancient world.” He is exactly right about English Bible translations, which should render faithfully “the powerful cadences of the Hebrew” and capture “small but significant modulations in diction in the biblical language”; such translations necessarily entail “a high degree of literalism.” He is right about the central importance of the translation itself versus the scholarly exoskeleton that supports it: His introduction is short and spare; his terse commentary is a mere “handmaiden” (as he says) to his translation.