reader will be alert to the conventions of Hebrew narrative style, including plot, characterization and setting. As Robert Alter, the doyen of modern literary study of the Bible, says, “It is important to keep in mind the peculiarity of the Hebrew mode of presentation because that will help us learn where to look for its revelations of meaning.”4 Of course, it is important to interpret any individual passage in the book in the light of the overarching plot. The plot of the story is presented by a