In modern writing, various markers -- italics, bold type, punctuation, parentheses, and so forth -- are used to indicate emphasis and clarify meaning. The authors of the Old Testament could not rely on such devices since they lived in an oral culture. When their accounts were committed to writing, literary structure highlighted certain ideas and conveyed meaning and emphasis accurately. Unfortunately, as we read the Old Testament, we frequently overlook this inherent literary structure. David Dorsey provides a guide to the literary structure of the Old Testament, thus clarifying the meaning of each Old Testament book. - Back cover.