Editing Bible (section)

===== Book order =====
The following list presents the books of Ketuvim in the order they appear in most current printed editions.
* ''Tehillim'' ([[Psalms]]) תְהִלִּים is an anthology of individual Hebrew religious hymns.
* ''Mishlei'' ([[Book of Proverbs]]) מִשְלֵי is a "collection of collections" on values, moral behaviour, the meaning of life and right conduct, and its basis in faith.
* ''Iyov'' ([[Book of Job]]) אִיּוֹב is about faith, without understanding or justifying suffering.
* ''Shir ha-Shirim'' ([[Song of Songs]]) or (Song of Solomon) שִׁיר הַשִׁירִים ([[Passover]]) is poetry about love and sex.
* ''Ruth'' ([[Book of Ruth]]) רוּת ([[Shavuot]]) tells of the Moabite woman Ruth, who decides to follow the God of the Israelites, and remains loyal to her mother-in-law, who is then rewarded.
* ''Eikha'' ([[Book of Lamentations|Lamentations]]) איכה ([[Ninth of Av]]) [Also called ''Kinnot'' in Hebrew.] is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.
* ''Qoheleth'' ([[Ecclesiastes]]) קהלת ([[Sukkot]]) contains wisdom sayings disagreed over by scholars. Is it positive and life-affirming, or deeply pessimistic?
* ''Ester'' ([[Book of Esther]]) אֶסְתֵר ([[Purim]]) tells of a Hebrew woman in Persia who becomes queen and thwarts a genocide of her people.
* ''Dani’el'' ([[Book of Daniel]]) דָּנִיֵּאל combines prophecy and eschatology (end times) in story of God saving Daniel just as He will save Israel.
* ''‘Ezra'' ([[Book of Ezra]]–[[Book of Nehemiah]]) עזרא tells of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.
* ''Divrei ha-Yamim'' ([[Books of Chronicles|Chronicles]]) דברי הימים contains genealogy.

The Jewish textual tradition never finalized the order of the books in Ketuvim. The [[Talmud|Babylonian Talmud]] ([[Bava Batra]] 14b–15a) gives their order as Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Daniel, Scroll of Esther, Ezra, Chronicles.{{sfn|Rodkinson|2008|p=53}}

One of the large scale differences between the Babylonian and the Tiberian biblical traditions is the order of the books. Isaiah is placed after Ezekiel in the Babylonian, while Chronicles opens the Ketuvim in the Tiberian, and closes it in the Babylonian.{{sfn|Phillips|2016|pp=300–301}}

The Ketuvim is the last of the three portions of the Tanakh to have been accepted as canonical. While the Torah may have been considered canon by Israel as early as the fifth century BCE and the Former and Latter Prophets were canonized by the second century BCE, the Ketuvim was not a fixed canon until the second century CE.{{sfn|Coogan|2009|p=5}}

Evidence suggests, however, that the people of Israel were adding what would become the Ketuvim to their holy literature shortly after the canonization of the prophets. As early as 132 BCE references suggest that the Ketuvim was starting to take shape, although it lacked a formal title.{{sfn|Henshaw|1963|pp=16–17}} ''[[Against Apion]]'', the writing of [[Flavius Josephus|Josephus]] in 95 CE, treated the text of the Hebrew Bible as a closed canon to which "... no one has ventured either to add, or to remove, or to alter a syllable..."{{sfn|Lightfoot|2003|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=89oz-U-JJ0sC&pg=PA154 154–155]}} For an extended period after 95CE, the divine inspiration of Esther, [[the Song of Songs]], and [[Ecclesiastes]] was often under scrutiny.{{sfn|Henshaw|1963|p=17}}