The Five Scrolls

Where is a good starting point for reading the Bible?

Five scrolls constitute the second section of the third major division of the Hebrew bible. These are the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Qohelet, and Esther.

The Song, like the Psalms, is a key to our hearing of instruction. Ruth establishes the Moabite ancestry of David showing we must read about enemies more carefully. The music of the Lamentations moves us with four acrostic poems and a fifth poem of 22 verses of prayer to make new our days as of old. Sing the melody of Qohelet that adorns chapter 3, the time for every delight under the heavens. And party with Esther.

These five books are short and represent pieces of the whole story, the Song a key, Ruth, a snippet of history, Lamentations, the tragedy of the destruction, Qohelet, the words of the shrewd, and Esther, ultimate social success (including taxes). They are like the elaborate bow on the whole unfathomable present that is the Hebrew Bible.

The Five Scrolls

is volume 6 of the series, The Hebrew Bible and Its Music.