Heaton presents the written version of his 1994 Bampton lectures. He assumes that schools for instruction existed in ancient Israel and that much of the wisdom literature is a product of these institutions. A large part of the book is made up of quotations from ancient sources. Outside the Bible this is predominantly Ben Sira and various examples of Egyptian wisdom literature. Within the OT Heaton examines traditional books such as Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, as well as the Song of Solomon and shorter pieces (e.g. the Joseph story). The reader learns that Proverbs has no principie of arrangement, that the message of Ecclesiastes is that life is to be enjoyed as a gift from God and that Israelite wisdom was fundamentally optimistic in terms of its belief in the goodness of God. This book will not replace standard introductions to the subject but it does provide a stimulating initiation.

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