A Commentary on Micah [Hardcover]

Bruce K. Waltke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2007

In this masterful commentary, respected biblical scholar Bruce Waltke carefully interprets the message of the prophet Micah, building a bridge between Micahs ancient world and our life today. Waltkes Commentary on Micah quickly distinguishes itself from other commentaries on this book by displaying an unprecedented exegetical thoroughness, an expert understanding of historical context, and a keen interest in illuminating the contribution of Micah to Christian theology. Tackling hard questions about date and authorship, Waltke contends that Micah himself wrote and edited the nineteen sermons comprising the book. Waltkes clear analytical outline leads readers through the three cycles of Micah, each beginning with an oracle of doom and ending with an oracle of hope, decisively showing that hope wins over doom. Learned yet amazingly accessible, combining scholarly erudition with passion for Micahs contemporary relevance, this book will well serve teachers, pastors, and students alike.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 490 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (January 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802849334
• ISBN-13: 978-0802849335
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,481,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce K. Waltke (PhD, Dallas Theological Seminary; PhD, Harvard Divinity School), acknowledged to be one of the outstanding contemporary Old Testament scholars, is professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and professor emeritus of biblical studies at Regent College in Vancouver. He has authored and coauthored numerous books, commentaries, and articles, and contributed to dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great IF you know Hebrew. Application is slim, but technical info is superior, June 4, 2008

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David A. Bielby "Ev Xpistw" (Normal, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Commentary on Micah (Hardcover)

I'm a pastor working through Micah for a sermon series. I purchased this commentary because it looked very interesting. I'm very glad I bought it, but it is not exactly what I thought I was buying. Let me explain so that you can make a more informed decision than I was able to make.

My illustrations and summaries will focus on his translation, exegesis and exposition for Micah 3:1-4. My executive summary is simply this: If you know Hebrew and are technically oriented, this is your commentary. If you don't know Hebrew and are oriented towards application that preaches well...this ain't it baby. However, he does give some application ideas in his expositional segments.

The details on my executive summary:

1) Each segment has an outline title (overall he has three cycles for the whole book). He has a subtitle for Micah 3:1-12 and then a title for the subsegment 3:1-4. All of the titles are purely exegetical. For example he titles 3:1-4 (Shepherds turned Cannibals).

After providing his own translation of the passage, he turns to extensive word by word or phrase by phrase exegesis. For verse one, which has 11 words (some compounds) in the original Hebrew text, Waltke gives almost four full pages of technical data on the Hebrew text. He includes comments about what bits and phrases are considered original and who opposes those ideas and why he agrees or disagrees. For a scholarly paper on Micah, it is a goldmine. Only pastors who are well versed in Hebrew grammar will understand everything Waltke says in this commentary. For example in his expository comments on Micah 6:8 Waltke refers to a complex myriad of factors including subsets of Hebrew that I've never heard of. He cites parsing of words moving from Hebrew parsing to the LXX (Greek) and sometimes cites Latin. Yet everything is transliterated. So if you are like me, (not good at Hebrew transliteration), you have to have a Hebrew text open with some software enabled (I use BibleWorks 7.0) to really track Waltke.

If you want to look intently at the options for a word or phrase, this commentary will not let you down. But make sure you have some time on your hands. It's no quick read.

His short summaries of Hebrew grammatical analysis are impossible to understand unless you remember your Hebrew grammar) but helpful grammatical notes are packed into each paragraph. Not only does he explain each particle, but he goes on to explain how the LXX translated it, giving the Greek text (transliterated also). He is well-versed in Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin, Greek and probably other languages (at least he cites or refers to other obscure languages often).

After 8 full pages of exegesis on Micah 3:1-4, he then begins his exposition section. He gives 4 full pages of exposition on top of the exegesis. For pastors, this is the section to zoom in on. Sometimes Waltke weaves helpful application nuggets into his exposition. On this section he speculates that Micah is probably addressing gifted and privileged magistrates who are congregated in the Temple Courts in Jerusalem during an annual festival. He ties the judgment proclamation to law principles scattered throughout several books in the Torah. He cites parallel or related concepts throughout the major prophets like Isaiah. Into these references he sometimes cites direct applications. For example for his Isaiah connection he cites the good being called bad and bad being called good quote from Isa 5:20. He bemoans the Supreme Court of the USA allowing abortion of babies and also allowing blasphemy and smut to foul society. The link from judges in Israel to judges in America is an apt application. It gives some food for thought in preparing a good sermon and his references are helpful and worth using for sermon prep thought or even in an actual sermon.

I found that the NIVAC on Hosea/Amos/Micah offers explanations of the original text that read well, concepts for bridging into our lives that are well written AND a host of application thoughts and connecting ideas with scripture references. I think that Gary Smith's work in that NIVAC edition is a great match to this work by Waltke.

In essence, the more technically minded you are, the more you will like Waltke's commentary. However, preacher beware. It will be difficult to develop life transforming applications with just Waltke's work. Get Gary Smith's or Elizabeth Achtemeier for more application development and I think you will connect more effectively with the 'average' person in the pew.

My Hebrew instructor absolutely loves this commentary. I suppose he would give it a six star if that were possible. So really the only weakness is the application lack...which can be found in other tools. I recommend you add this volume to your library. Go ahead and stretch yourself!

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watlke at his best, March 21, 2007

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Exegetical Librarian - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Commentary on Micah (Hardcover)

This book was born out of Waltke's deep desire to communicate the message of Micah. Originally he had wanted to write it in the Baker series commentaries, and realized that the information that he had was too large, and simplified it for the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the Minor Prophets.

There is no better commentary so far that deals with the book of Micah from an evangelical perspective.