A Table in the Wilderness: The Rhetorical Function of Food Language in Psalm 78

“Can God set a table in the wilderness?” (Ps 78:19)

In A Table in the Wilderness, Michelle Stinson considers the rhetorical power of the language of food in the hands of the biblical writers. Through a careful analysis of two key food-based events recalled in Psalm 78—the divine provision of food in the wilderness (vv. 15–31) and the dismantling of food supplies through the Egyptian plagues (vv. 44–51)—Stinson shows how the psalmist’s rhetorical crafting of these accounts seeks to instill co...