When you visit a monument with a guide, you expect the guide to be unobtrusive, to allow you to see the monument so that you take in all its essential features. This book is meant to be such a guide to the Old Testament. Travel guides usually offer a number of options: ‘If you only have a few hours…’, ‘If you have three days…’ The same is true of this. It is not concerned to involve you in every detail but to help you get to know your way around. You can always came back… The companion to this volume is How to Read the New Testament.