Illuminating the Artistry of Scripture

Biblical poetry is central in biblical traditions, comprising roughly one-third of the Bible including some of its most powerful and beloved texts. Understanding how ancient Hebrew poetry works helps us read and interpret these texts more faithfully and avoid importing our own poetry traditions’ often very different reading strategies. Better understanding of what biblical poems do and how they do it also opens up the aesthetic dimension of Scripture, bringing us closer to experiencing the ancient artistry. Furthermore, a better understanding of the conventions of biblical poetry casts light on the conventions of biblical prose, since both belong to the same cultural-literary tradition.

You can appreciate dimensions of biblical poetry in translation—for example, the images it displays, feelings it may evoke, and arguments it may make. This being said, like other poetries, biblical Hebrew poetry is crafted by poets who carefully put particular words from a particular language into a particular order. Poetry artfully exploits the possibilities of its language—sounds, phrases, word meanings, and much more—for structures, rhythms, and effects. Translations (especially with resource guides) can help us better appreciate poems we cannot read in an original language, but there is no one-to-one translation of a poem from one language into another. Poetry needs its original language for full expression.

I believe that if more people were exposed to the beauty and joy of reading biblical poems in Hebrew, more people would be motivated to learn Hebrew. We also need wordsmiths who don’t read Hebrew to see the artistry of biblical poems and be inspired to create more artful translations. My goal is to cultivate learning communities in which all the above happens with the result that biblical poems are experienced in new and compelling ways by their audiences.

This website is for anyone interested in the literary artistry of the Bible—scholars, students, translators, pastors, and curious readers. Whether you’re conducting academic research, preparing a sermon, or simply want to deepen your appreciation of Scripture’s poetry, you’ll find resources here to help.

At this stage, the resources are especially designed for people working with the Hebrew text, with varying degrees of familiarity with current scholarly conversations. My intention is for the users of this website to in turn make this material usable for their own audiences in their own unique contexts. Subscribe to the mailing list to receive updates when content is added.

Yes! The resources on this website are for real people in real contexts, best created in partnership. The needs of different audiences are often vastly different, so please reach out about what would best help you in your context. The future content of this website will be shaped by those engaging with it.

This work is funded through a combination of institutional support, grants, and generous donations from individuals who believe in making biblical scholarship accessible. Your contributions help create open-access resources for researchers, educators, translators, and students worldwide.