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Summary of the books of the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible consists of twenty-four books organized into three major sections called the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Writings, respectively. Each section and book is summarized briefly below.
- See also ‘About the Hebrew Bible’ in the ‘Further Resources’ section of this website for some recommended introductions to the Hebrew Bible.
A. The Pentateuch
The Pentateuch contains the first five biblical books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
i. Genesis
Genesis begins by describing the creation of the world and the first humans, Adam and Eve, their early existence in the Garden of Eden and subsequent expulsion, and a history of their descendants. This section includes many famous stories such as the murderous tale of the world’s first two brothers, Cain and Abel; the massive flood survived only by the righteous Noah, his family, and carefully selected animals; and the Tower of Babel, a description of early humans’ attempt to conquer the heavens. Many of these stories exhibit fascinating links to other ancient Near Eastern literatures; for example, the flood story has a striking parallel in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. After chronicling the early generations of human history, Genesis turns to the more specific national story of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the founding members of what would later become the Israelite people. It begins with Abraham, the first Patriarch, who obeys God’s instruction to leave his home in Mesopotamia and settle in the land of Canaan. In exchange, God promises Abraham that he will become the father of a great nation which will inherit the land. This covenant is passed on to Abraham’s younger son Isaac and then to Isaac’s younger son Jacob. Jacob becomes the head of a large family consisting of twelve sons. Towards the end of the book, the family settles in Egypt, where they become a sizeable nation organized into twelve tribes descended from Jacob’s sons.
ii. Exodus
Exodus tells the story of how the Israelite nation becomes enslaved in Egypt and how God appears to the unlikely leader Moses and commands him to stand up to the tyranny of the Pharaoh in order to liberate his people from their terrible suffering and bring them out of Egypt to their ancestral homeland of Canaan, where they will once again be a free nation. The Israelites flee to the desert, where they experience divine revelation at Mount Sinai and are given a set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments, the basic moral tenets to which they must adhere, as well as detailed instructions for the construction of a Tabernacle to house the tablets.
iii. Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Leviticus consists of a detailed legal code given to the Israelites in the desert by God as the foundation of their new free society. Numbers and Deuteronomy contain a mix of more laws and of stories about the Israelites’ time spent wandering in the desert for 40 years under the leadership of Moses, his brother Aaron, and his sister Miriam until God deems them sufficiently prepared to enter the promised land. Deuteronomy ends with Moses’ final address to his people before his death just outside the land of Canaan.
B. Prophets
Prophets is divided into two sections, Former and Latter. The Former Prophets consists of the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, which contain historical prose narrative following on from the Pentateuch. The Latter Prophets consists of the books Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel (also known as the Major Prophets) and the so-called Twelve Minor Prophets, which are primarily poetic writings that consist largely of critiques of the Israelites’ failure to live up to their divinely commanded ethical standards combined with prophecies of the inevitable negative consequences of these shortcomings.
i. Joshua
The Book of Joshua continues where Deuteronomy left off. Joshua, to whom Moses passed the mantle of leadership before dying, leads the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan, which is inhabited by a number of hostile nations. The book contains several well-known stories such as that of Rahab, a Canaanite woman who comes to the aid of Joshua’s men, and the Battle of Jericho, in which the city walls crumble before the Israelite troops.
ii. Judges
This book describes Israelite life in the land of Canaan in the generations following the conquest, when the people were governed by a series of leaders called Judges. The period of the Judges was characterized by extreme lawlessness as well as by frequent violent clashes with enemy nations such as the Philistines and Moabites. It includes the stories of famous Judges such as the prophetess Deborah, who led her people to victory against a powerful Canaanite general, and Samson, famed for his superhuman strength as well as for his downfall at the hands of the Philistine woman Delilah.
iii. 1 and 2 Samuel
The first Book of Samuel marks the beginning of the monarchic period in Israelite history. The prophet Samuel, the last of the Judges, rules the people until they cry out for a king and God allows him to grant their request by anointing a young man called Saul to rule over them. When Saul falls out of divine favour, he is replaced by David, a shepherd’s son who becomes a great leader and establishes Jerusalem as the capital of a united Israelite kingdom.
iv. 1 and 2 Kings
1 Kings begins with David’s death whereupon he is succeeded by his son Solomon, who is renowned for his great wisdom and builds a magnificent Temple to God in Jerusalem. However, following Solomon’s death the monarchy is weakened by numerous power struggles and corrupt kings, culminating in the kingdom’s division into two, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. During this period, the prophet Elijah struggles to raise the fallen moral standard of the kings and people alike and eradicate the widespread worship of the Pagan god Baal from the land. However, the corruption and disasters continue; the northern kingdom of Israel is absorbed into the Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE, and the southern kingdom of Judah is conquered by the Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. The latter sees the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the exile of many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants to Babylon.
v. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
These three books, collectively labelled the Major Prophets, are poetic works addressing issues of Israelite morality and giving prophetic insights into their future. Isaiah, set in the centuries preceding the Babylonian conquest of Judah, criticizes the people’s lack of ethical standards and warns of impending doom. Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem around the time of the Babylonian conquest and destruction of the Temple. Ezekiel lived in the same period but was an exile in Babylon, where he experienced a series of visions prophesying the return of the banished people to their homeland and the rebuilding of the Temple.
vi. The Latter Prophets
The twelve Minor Prophets are comprised of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These books are relatively short and are composed largely of poetic outcries against the Israelites’ perpetual disregard for social justice and failure to live up to the moral standards that God demands of them. The most well-known of the Minor Prophets is Jonah, who is swallowed by a giant fish after attempting to disregard a direct command from God.
C. Writings
The Writings consists of a diverse selection of texts.
i. Psalms
This is a collection of 150 poems, of which many are traditionally attributed to King David. The Psalms powerfully express a range of different spiritual emotions, with some expressing joy and gratitude to God, while others cry out for salvation in times of distress.
ii. Proverbs
Traditionally attributed to King Solomon, Proverbs is a compendium of philosophical and moral sayings touching on numerous aspects of life.
iii. Job
The Book of Job is a powerful study, part prose but largely poetry, addressing the timeless question of why innocent people suffer.
iv. Song of Songs
The Song of Songs, also traditionally attributed to King Solomon, is a love poem rich with metaphor and evocative imagery.
v. Ruth
Set in the time of the Judges, this book tells the story of a Moabite woman who chooses to become an Israelite.
vi. Lamentations
Traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, this is a harrowing poetic description of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.
vii. Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes is a poetic commentary on the cyclical and often seemingly futile nature of the world, including famous observations such as ‘all is vanity’ and ‘to every thing there is a season.’
viii. Esther
Esther tells the story of a Jewish orphan who becomes Queen of the vast Persian Empire and saves her people from a genocidal plot devised by the king’s anti-Semitic minister.
ix. Daniel
This book recounts the experiences of Daniel, an exiled Judean in the court of the Babylonian king. Much of the book is written in Aramaic.
x. Ezra and Nehemiah
These books describe the return of some of the Babylonian exiles to Jerusalem and their attempts to rebuild the destroyed Temple after King Cyrus of Persia issues a decree in 537 BCE allowing them to do so. Portions of Ezra are written in Aramaic.
xi. 1 and 2 Chronicles
The final two books of the Hebrew Bible constitute a retelling of the monarchic history presented in Samuel and Kings.