The basic argument of Robert Alter's short, entertaining book is that Bible translators must consider not only lexical value, when deciding on the translation of a word or passage, but also literary style, because style is not just an embellishment of the “message” of Scripture but the vital medium through which is conveyed the biblical vision of God and of man. It seems hard to disagree.
The book has grown out of Alter's decades-long experience as a translator—he has now produced translations and extensive commentaries of the entire Hebrew Bible—and draws attention at moments to how that work gave him a new awareness of the role of such elements as wordplay or rhythm in the construction of meaning in the biblical texts. The book is organized as a primer on five of these elements: syntax; word-choice; sound play and wordplay; rhythm; and the language of dialogue, and on how they...
