The words fresh and new are so overused, we are rightly skeptical when we hear them applied to books. However, in The Message: The Old Testament Prophets, Eugene Peterson again boldly takes on sacred text, translating it into the vernacular in--dare we say it?--fresh, new ways. Where once the Old Testament prophets may have seemed outdated, his heavy use of metaphors and fiery prose make the text sing, loudly proclaiming righteousness and direction to contemporary culture. This from Jeremiah, chapter seven: "Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you're swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, and tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods and buy every novel religious commodity on the market--and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, 'We're safe!' thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals!" The Message: The Old Testament Prophets satisfies our hunger for more of Peterson's no-holds-barred, knock-you-down scripture, while whetting the appetite for the full biblical text, slated for release in 2002. It jars us out of our complacency, pricks our conscience, resonates with alarming clarity. Don't ignore this call to holiness from a modern-day prophet. --Cindy Crosby