Structural Outlines for Old Testament
The Book of Ruth
A. Emptied Out (1)
B. Ruth Goes Out to Boaz's Fields (2)
B'. Ruth Goes Out to Boaz's Threshing Floor (3)
A'. Filled Up (4)
The Book of Ecclesiastes
Title (1:1)
a. poem about the brevity and insignificance of life (1:2-11).
b. wisdom's failure to discover life's meaning (1:12-2:26)
c. poem about time (3:1-15)
d. the world's moral problems (3:16-4:16)
e. CENTER: Fear God! (5:1-7)
d'. the world's moral problems revisited (5:8-6:12)
c'. poem about time revisited (7:1-14)
b'. wisdom's failure revisited (7:15-11:6)
a'. poem about life's brevity revisited (11:7-12:8)
Conclusion (12:9-14)
The Song of Songs
Lamentations
The Book of Esther
a. King’s proud feast (1:1-22)
b. Esther becomes queen (2:1-18)
c. King’s life is saved (2:19-23)
d. Haman’s plot (3:1-4:3)
e. Mordecai learns of Hama’s plot and appeals to Esther (4:4-17)
f. Esther’s first banquet for King and Haman (5:1-14)
g. CENTER: Haman’s fortunes turn; Mordecai the Jew is honored
(6:1-14)
f’. Esther’s second banquet for King and Haman (7:1-10)
e’. Mordecai and Esther given Haman’s estate (8:1-2)
d’. Haman’s plot foiled (8:3-17)
c’. Jews’ lives are saved (9:1-10)
b’. Esther winds second day for Jews in Susa (9:11-19)
a’. Jews’ Feast of Purim (9:20-10:3)
From David A. Dorsey, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999), 163.
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