A Hebrew Reader for the Psalms serves a simple purpose: to help readers know the Hebrew text of the Psalms more intimately. On the surface, this book looks ordinary. You will find forty various Psalms stitched together. However, it offers much more than that. The editors removed as many obstacles as possible between the reader and the Hebrew text. They designed the book as both a language-learning tool and a devotional text, meant to be used repeatedly over time. The two editors, Peter Myers and Jonathan G. Kline, both taught Hebrew for years. This experience equipped them to make A Hebrew Reader a practical book that a Hebrew student can easily use. This book shines in its organization and the help it gives with the Hebrew text. 

A Hebrew Reader organizes the forty Psalms into seven sections by topic:
I. Hymnic/Faith Psalms,
II. Lament/Supplication Psalms part one,
III. Liturgy Psalms part one,
IV. Lament/Supplication Psalms part two,
V. Liturgy Psalms part two,
VI. Wisdom/Torah Psalms,
VII. Thanksgiving Psalms.
Each section arranges the psalms from easiest to hardest, with five to seven psalms per section. You can read through the sections from start to finish or hop around to easier psalms and progressively work through harder ones. The size and arrangement of the book make it convenient for personal devotional use. It is compact and has a clear layout.  

If you open to any psalm and see the facing pages, the Hebrew text lies on the right page, and a Facing Apparatus lies on the left page. The two sides work together to help the reader translate and understand the Psalm.  

The editors separated the Hebrew text into lines, clauses, and phrases. These separations match the Masoretic cantillation marks that divide the text. You can see and appreciate the cantillation marks without having to learn the pointing. Appendix 2 provides a thorough explanation and guide for Masoretic cantillation marks. 

The Facing Apparatus gives the lexical forms of the Hebrew text and a gloss for each word. The lexical form is the Hebrew root you would find in a lexicon/dictionary. The gloss is the English translation. The book provides lexical forms for all verbs, as well as most non-verbs. The Facing Apparatus makes a unique choice by providing contextual glosses. The formatting system packs a large amount of information into a small amount of space. The reader can research the dictionary form of almost any Hebrew word in each Psalm, exploring all the ways the context might shape the word. The reader can also quickly translate a word and move on without having to spend time and wrestle over how the context might affect the translation. Providing lexical forms serves deeper Hebrew study. Providing contextual glosses serves a more devotional use where time is limited. The editors state that the contextual glosses are not definitive, but are “steppingstones” for the reader, to help them “venture further into the rich, sometimes complex, world of the text on your own” (200–202). They demonstrate in the introduction how hard and difficult translating the Hebrew of the Psalms can be. They encourage independent study of lexicons, commentaries, and other translations.  

For example, the NIV of Psalm 43:5 that I am familiar with is, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” According to the gloss in the Facing Apparatus, the last phrase is, “the salvation of my face and my God.” In that same verse, the word for “hope” is given as “wait.” It invited me to investigate the curious phrase, “the salvation of my face,” what that might mean, and to think about the connection between hoping and waiting.  

Another example comes in Psalm 146:4. The NIV translates that verse, “When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.” The Hebrew word for ‘plans’ is עֶשְׁתֹּנָה. The provided contextual gloss is “cogitations.” I thought that was an unusual word to suggest. This led me to further study. עֶשְׁתֹּנָה is a hapax legomenon. It’s used once in Ecclesiasticus 3:24. This pushed me to look at the context and think about what meanings that word might possibly have. 

A Post-Psalm Apparatus for each psalm comes after the Hebrew text and Facing Apparatus. This section guides readers who want to dive deeper into the Psalm. It provides information on text criticism and morphology.  

The editors transcribed each psalm from the Aleppo Codex and then compared that with the Leningrad Codex. They then compared both to the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) electronic text and the Bar-Hama photographs. Psalms 15–24 are not in the Aleppo Codex, so the text of psalms from that group was transcribed from photographs of the Leningrad Codex.  

The Post-Psalm Apparatus contains, then, a section with all qere/ketiv variations, a section that notes differences in pointing between the Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex, and a section that notes all other differences between the Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex not covered in the previous section. It also gives the morphology of all verbs and many non-verbs.  

Appendix 1 gives a more complete explanation of the Facing Apparatus and Post-Psalm Apparatus than what I give here. Appendix 2 provides a thorough explanation of Masoretic accents and their relationships to each other. As you can see, A Hebrew Reader was made for beginners and experts alike.  

Evaluation 

A few features stand out in this book.  

The organization of Psalms from easier to harder made reading the Psalms more enjoyable. I knew what to expect with the challenge level when beginning a psalm.   

The physical separation of the Masoretic cantillation marks opened a new window when reading. I am not practiced in knowing what the marks mean. I should be, and Appendix 2 provides a tool to start getting better. Seeing the breaks after certain phrases not obvious in the English added another layer of meaning and meditation.  

The Facing Apparatus was a big help. The lexical forms helped me learn which Hebrew word was being used, while the contextual glosses helped me move through the psalm at a reasonable pace.  

Practically, it is convenient, compact, and has a clear layout. It travels in a bag or sits on a nightstand. I can open it and start reading a psalm in Hebrew without having to open my laptop to use Logos. Everything you need to translate the psalm is right there on the facing pages.   

Do you like the Psalms? Do you want to improve your Hebrew? Then I would recommend this book for you. It serves as a wonderful devotional book to know the Psalms more intimately and a great way to improve your Hebrew reading.