Many Are Saying: The Function of Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Psalter

In recent years, Old Testament scholars have come to see that the aesthetic and rhetorical richness of Hebrew poetry goes far beyond simple synonymous, antithetic, and synthetic parallelism. One aspect that has yet to receive sustained treatment is the poetic device known as direct discourse or quotation—the direct citation of a person’s speech.

Rolf A. Jacobson remedies this lack and makes a significant contribution to Old Testament studies by offering a sustained investigation into the function of direct discourse in the Hebrew Psalter. This leads to a greater understanding both of direct discourse and also of those psalms in which this poetic device occurs.