This latest entry in the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary (ZECOT) series continues to deliver the goods. Additionally, the series continues to provide us these nice volumes on individual books in the collection of Minor Prophets. The author of this one on Malachi, Dennis Tucker, has a nice collection of successful writings, though a bit more in the Psalms. He has worked on Jonah as well, though I’ve not used that one.

Immediately in the Introduction, he establishes what he feels is Malachi’s theme—“fidelity to the great King”. He gives conclusions that he well works out on things like author and date. I notice he is quite thorough in listing all the main opinions before his conclusions, which might be the concern of some. Far more important is calling balls and strikes on these plethora of scholarly opinions and that he does.

His historical analysis was succinct, but clear. When he tackled literary analysis, he especially highlighted “direct discourse (DD)” and saw it as a key to unearthing structure. He’s probably on to something there. This series has high expectations for structure, and I think he came through. it made sense, though other possibilities exist.

Somewhat related is the theological message of Malachi, and he gave us what he felt were the three most important things in that regard. Perhaps that section could have been longer, but it was still helpful. Next, he gave an outline of the style we have come to expect in this series.

The commentary was good throughout. The exegesis was sound and thorough. If you are looking for a single volume on Malachi, here’s you a great option. Many of these shorter prophetic books are packaged in commentaries, so this is a nice asset to have at hand. Perhaps I liked the volume on Nahum better, but this one can stand along side the other existing ZECOT volumes on Minor Prophets.

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