This article serves as an introduction to the writings of Jewish poet Edmond Jabes. Whereas the Christian metaphor of "fulfilment" has influenced Western interpretive practice, the Jewish metaphor of "exile" runs as a counter-history to the dominant Christian tradition. Jabes points to a wandering, nomadic truth that knows absence and the desert, sustained by an open, indeterminate Book rather than a closed, completed Book. This "exilic hermeneutic" is central to Jabes writings.