Tragedy and Biblical Narrative
Arrows of the Almighty

Using insights about ancient and modern tragedy, this much-praised study offers challenging and provocative new readings of selected biblical narratives.

J. Cheryl Exum (Author)

9780521565066, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 May 1996

224 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.318 kg

'Exum writes beautifully.' JSOT

Using insights about ancient and modern tragedy, this much-praised study offers challenging and provocative new readings of selected biblical narratives: the story of Israel's first king, Saul, rejected for his disobedience to God and driven to despair and madness by an evil spirit from the Lord; the story of Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter in fulfilment of his vow to offer God a sacrifice in return for military victory; the stories of the members of Saul's house, each of whom comes to a tragic end; and the story of Israel's most famous king, David, whose tragedy lies in the burden of divine judgement that falls upon his house as a consequence of his sins. Exum discusses how these narratives handle such perennial tragic issues as guilt, suffering, and evil. She suggests that the extraordinary range and power of biblical narrative has its source in the Bible's uncompromising portrayal of reality as embracing despair, as well as resolution.

Acknowledgements
About translations and transliterations
Part I. Biblical Narrative and the Tragic Vision
Part II. Saul: the Hostility of God: Excursus: hostile transcendence in the Samson story
Part III. Jephthah: the Absence of God: Excursus 1: The awful and sustaining power of words
Excursus 2: Jephthah and his daughter: a feminist reading
Part IV. The Fate of the House of Saul: Michal and Jonathan
Jonathan
Michal
Abner and Ishbosheth
Rizpah's vigil and the tragic end of the House of Saul
Part V. David: the Judgement of God
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index of authors
Index of proper names
Index of citations.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]