Hills of Spices : Poetry from the Bible

Beautiful verse from the world’s greatest book

In the concluding lines of The Song of Songs, one lover beckons the other to hurry to the “hills of spices,” a place rich in fragrances and flavors, a feast for the senses. This lovely new collection invites us all to feast our senses on poetry from The Song of Songs and from many other passages of the Bible. Some of these, like The Song of the Sea and David’s Lament, are well-known classics; others, such as surprising poetic moments in Isaiah and Ezekiel, will, for many, be delightful new discoveries. Verses from the pages of Genesis, Exodus, Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Proverbs, Psalms, and many other biblical books are here, with the JPS English translation sitting across the page from the original biblical Hebrew. The poems are organized thematically—Blessings and Curses, Laments, Love Songs, Prayers and Songs of Praise, among others—making it easy to find the right verse to fit the mood or need. There is an appendix listing the poems by biblical book, chapter, and verse.

Rena Potok, the editor of this collection, is senior acquisitions editor at The Jewish Publication Society. She received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory and an M.A. in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a writer and poet, and a translator of Israeli fiction and poetry.