This book introduces readers the ways that Israel used cultural idioms from the surrounding nations to describe God.

Since we have a well preserved set of ancient documents from Israel (the Hebrew Scriptures), and little from the surrounding nations, it’s easy to think that all of Israel’s praise-language was her own divine invention. That is clearly not the case—God has always and continues to use our culture to speak to us (indeed, there’s no other way).

Unfortunately, the 1960s scholarly tone makes the book a little difficult to read. Still, the information (especially the quotations from other cultures) is worth the effort if you can find a good second-hand copy somewhere.

Guthrie, Harvey H. Israel’s Sacred Songs: A Study of Dominant Themes. Seabury Press, 1966.