The New American Commentary: Judges, Ruth (Hardcover)

by Daniel I. Block (Author), Kenneth A. Mathews (Editor), David S. Dockery (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 761 pages
• Publisher: B&H Publishing Group (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805401067
• ISBN-13: 978-0805401066
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #137,293 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best commentary on Judges available, April 4, 2002

By	David Lynden "dlynden" (Springfield, OH USA) - See all my reviews

It isn't simply that I buy everything Daniel Block publishes. I do. But, apart from the fact that he is a fine scholar, a clear-headed exegete and a solid communicator, this commentary is a must-buy for any student of the OT simply because it represents one of the few works out there on Judges. Until recently, Judges suffered from a drought of commentators. The last thorough treatment on Judges was written by Robert Boling for the Anchor series and that was back in 1975.

Block's commentary gives the reader both balanced and well-informed comments on the text's meaning as well as philological notes on the Hebrew (kept conveniently in the footnotes). It delves deeply for the more scholarly concerns, yet can be accessed by an informed layperson. Block's familiarity and usage of secondary sources, which are also listed in the footnotes, are invaluable for further study. While some quite commendable commentaries on Judges have recently appeared since Block's work, none have come close to eclipsing his fine contribution.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Judge for yourself...probably the best commentary on Judges, February 18, 2005

By	Christopher B. Prentiss (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a particularly fine example of evangelical scholarship which also interacts with both Jewish and liberal scholarship in a significant way to produce a very usable commentary for both the specialist and the informed layman.

His work in the NICOT on Ezekial is heralded by many (Tremper Longman among them) as simply the best OT commentary in print. The constraints in this series might be a bit more restrictive, but Block has managed to produce what is probably the best commentary on Judges available. (Lawson Younger's work in the NIVAC series is good too but the goal of that series is even more modest.)

Block's introductory material is almost worth the price of the book. And the commentary portion, while working verse by verse, includes an awareness of the literary, poetic and narrative concerns. He also shows an awareness of the text-critical issues when appropriate without getting bogged down, he always displays a high view of inspiration, and his footnotes are a wealth of information for the student wishing to go deeper and interact with scholarly sources.

The primary drawback to the commentary is that often after writing a page or two about one particular verse Block often fails to draw some fairly obivious conclusions on what the narrator is actually communicating. For example, he spends nearly 2 pages on the place and person names of 4:2 and suggests various possibilities concerning the issue of how Jabin could oppress the Israelites from Hazor (which had recently been decimated by Joshua), and yet he does not draw any conclusions about the narrator's characterization of Israel's request for the Lord's help being due to political oppression (that is, rather than repentance.)

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, October 25, 2008

By	Sammy Little "little77661" (Stowell, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Very thorough and helpful dealing with many of the interesting quirks of these books. I believe it to be the best commentary on Judges out there. No commentary can have everything, but this one either has it or points to where else to dig.