What Rough Beast?: Images of God in the Hebrew Bible

In this very readable (but not very comfortable!) book, Penchansky carefully examines five less-frequently-read biblical narratives: God's nocturnal attack on Moses in Exodus 4; God's outbursts against Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10) and Uzzah (2 Samuel 6); King David's fatal census (2 Samuel 24); and Elisha's frightful curse (2 Kings 2). Penchansky also treats Genesis 3, a much more familiar text. In each case, Penchansky squarely faces up to the dark and disturbing images of God portrayed by these texts. He handles these texts with literary skill, theological acumen, and socio-historical imagination. Anyone who is interested in the Hebrew Bible's portrayals of God should read this book. It doesn't tell the whole story (and Penchansky doesn't pretend that it does), but it engages certain biblical ways of imaging God that are often neglected by readers nowadays.

LOOK! This book will shake your age old belief of God as you know him; loving, caring and rational. Penchansky, through elaborate examples from the old testament, paints an interesting and sometimes even disturbing picture of YHWH. Whether you consider yourself Christian, Muslim or atheist, this book will only strengthen your knowledge of the Biblical God. The text itself is very easy to read as all the arguments are well structured adn explained. Although Penchansky never reaches a single conclusion, his "suggestions" are worth reflecting upon.