Through translation, technical notes, and insightful commentary, Richard Clifford sheds new understanding on Proverbs. By focusing on the rhetoric of Proverbs, Clifford demonstrates how the book fosters a lifelong search for wisdom, and enables readers to see how the instructions and sayings are concerned with contemporary issues.

In this volume, Richard J. Clifford seeks to make the biblical wisdom literature intelligible to modern readers. It is easy to quote the occasional proverb, say a few things about "the problem of evil" in Job, or quote "vanity of vanities, " but far more rewarding to read the whole book with an appreciative and informed eye.

Opening chapters of The Wisdom Literature comment on the striking similarities between ancient and modern "wisdom literature" and on the comparable literature from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan. Thereafter, a chapter is devoted to each biblical wisdom book (Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Sirach, and Wisdom of Solomon), studying not only its content but also its rhetoric -- how it engages the reader.