The book of Isaiah uses both prose and poetry to engage readers in a drama of great emotion and intensity. Although the circumstances under which this book took its present form remain in scholarly dispute, this commentary highlights its larger purpose-to provide the people of Judah and Jerusalem with hope for the future and the will to re-embrace their ancestral religious traditions.

Leslie Hoppe assumes the composite character of the books and approaches the work as a whole with its own literary and theological integrity. Unlike many other contemporary commentaries on the book of Isaiah, the divisions of the book used here focus on its literary shape rather than the history of its composition. With this approach, we recognize that the book of Isaiah is an expression of faith in the Holy One of Israel and in the future of Jerusalem, both of which have decisively shaped the faith of Jewish and Christian believers over the centuries.

"Leslie J. Hoppe, OFM, is an adjunct professor at Catholic Theological Union after serving on its faculty for twenty-four years, and serves as the provincial minister of the Assumption Province Franciscans. He has written several books on biblical studies and archaeology, including "The Holy City: Jerusalem in the Theology of the Old Testament" (Liturgical Press, 2000). He is a former editor of "The Bible Today" and currently serves on its editorial board."

For millions of believers, Jerusalem is one of the world's holiest cities. Pilgrims from three major religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each of which is heir to Old Testament theological tradition - flock to Jerusalem where many of their most sacred memories are centered. This study of ancient Israel's sacred literature on the topic of Jerusalem is not a speculative exercise. It is a subject of immediate relevance to both the religious and political realities of present-day Jerusalem.

The Scriptures inspired by ancient Israel's priests, prophets, and sages provide the foundation for the status of Jerusalem in today's three monotheistic religions. In "The Holy City," Father Hoppe explores how the various theological traditions in the Hebrew Bible, apocrypha, and selected pseudepigrapha present Jerusalem. In closing he discusses how early Judaism dealt with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70.

Chapters are Jerusalem, the Holy City," "Zion, the City of God: Jerusalem in the Book of Psalms," "A Place for God's Name: Jerusalem in the Deuteronomic Tradition," "Ariel: Jerusalem in Isaiah," "Zion Under Judgment: Jerusalem in Pre-Exilic and Exilic Prophecy," "A Vision of Restoration: Jerusalem in Second Isaiah," "Zion Rebuilt: Jerusalem in the Post-Exilic Period," "The New Jerusalem," and "The Liberated City: The Defense of Jerusalem."

"Leslie Hoppe, OFM, PhD, is a professor at Catholic Theological Union and author of "A Guide to the Lands of the Bible" and "The Synagogues and Churches of Ancient Palestine" published by The Liturgical Press.""

There Shall Be No Poor Among You is a careful and comprehensive but not overly technical study of the biblical portrait of the poor and poverty. Hoppe introduces the study with the socioeconomic structures of ancient Israel and Roman Palestine, then proceeds systematically to examine the biblical evidence, including that of the Old Testament, New Testament, Apocrypha, and rabbinic literature.

The Bible describes the poor and poverty in a variety of ways. Sometimes poverty is a curse; other times it is a blessing. Sometimes the text is concerned about material poverty exclusively; other times poverty becomes a metaphor for another reality. Hoppe describes the various ways the Bible deals with the poor, but his fundamental conclusion is that the Bible never idealizes the reality of material poverty and the oppression of the poor by the rich. Even when the Bible speaks of poverty of the spirit as a positive religious metaphor, God requires humans to seek social justice.

Hoppe suggests that just as poverty is not idealized in the Bible, so the poor should be a priority of every community of faith. Ancient Israel, early Judaism, Jesus, and the first Christians did not forget the poor, and if believers today wish to be faithful to their biblical heritage, neither can they.

This book provides a practical background for scholars and is a primer for a significant theological motif. It will be useful in the classroom (in college and seminary courses in biblical ethics and social justice), as well as in serious Bible study. Study questions will help readers and students further probe history, theology, and application."