Old Testament

Week 16: Wisdom & poetry literature

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & the Song of Solomon

17 February 2022

• Kevin Barney, “Understanding Old Testament Poetry,” Ensign (June 1990): 51–54. We can comprehend the Old Testament better if we know how and why the Hebrew poets used repetition.

• Shon Hopkin, “The Psalm 22:16 Controversy: New Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls,” BYU Studies 44, no. 3 (2005): 161–172. Hopkin argues that the difficult Hebrew word in Psalm 22:16 really should read “pieced,” as the King James Version renders it.

• Donald W. Parry, “Temple Worship and a Possible Reference to a Prayer Circle in Psalm 24,” BYU Studies 32, no. 4 (Fall 1992): 57–62. Parry speculates on a possible reading for Psalm 24:6 that throws light on LDS temple worship.

• Kevin Barney, “Little Less than God,” By Common Consent, 26 April 2006. Barney suggests that modern translations of Psalm 8:5 actually support LDS doctrine better than the King James Version does.

• Kevin Barney, “I Know that My Redeemer Liveth,” By Common Consent, last modified 23 August 2010. Barney examines the King James Bible’s poor translation of Job 19:25–26.

• John W. Welch, “Chiasmus in Alma 36,” Charting the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999): 132. The Book of Mormon contains many passages in Hebrew poetical verse, especially the inverted parallel known as chiasmus. This chart reveals the complex chiastic structure of Alma chapter 36.