This commentary is quite in-depth and clearly must be rated a substantial commentary. It’s in the critical lane as you would expect from this series, yet not as critical as some that preceded it. The earlier volume on Chronicles in this series had quite a following in some circles, and Jonker seems to respect and revere it. In fact, one of the strengths of this book for scholars is how well it synthesizes scholarly work that went before it. If that’s what you’re after, you are going to love this volume.

For me, the commentary far exceeded the Introduction. The author seemed to miss the most pressing items. There was more needed on the history of the times (distinguish that from the supposed history of its writing). Structure could have been more imaginatively presented, though it was quite well reviewed in the smaller chunks as it was encountered in the commentary. The section on theology was fairly good, but could’ve been longer. To be fair, my more conservative stance might naturally make me not like some of the material in the introduction.

In the commentary itself, I must give a much higher recommendation. Clearly, its greatest strength was exegesis. It really dug in and offered help on many points. The author notices lots of details in the text that could easily be overlooked. You will find an excursus or two along the way, and even a chart, but the exegesis is where the gold resides. I’m sorry to put all the eggs of this volume in one basket, but that’s just how I see it. Since that, however, is what most readers are looking for, we will still have to say this is a great volume.

Every section in the commentary has a translation, some technical notes, a section on form and structure, one on sources, and finally the commentary itself. All of those sections were pretty good except the section on sources didn’t move the needle much for me.

 To my mind, this volume is easily in the top 10% of those we get in this series. The critical stance may not be to your liking, but there is lots of good to find besides those thrusts. I’m pretty impressed with this one. 

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

Goldingay is perhaps the most prolific OT commentator of our day. I’ve seen writers take a decade to produce a work like he has given us here in Ezekiel and he has another volume in the series on Leviticus coming out soon! To be fair, all of his commentaries are pretty full and don’t show major evidence of haste. Perhaps you might wonder how he chose what went in and what didn’t get into the introduction, but you will love what he did cover. He doesn’t waste words in the commentary proper, but he is never superficial and gives real help throughout.

This volume is now my favorite commentary of his commentaries. To be frank, some were a bit too critical for my taste, especially from someone who is supposed to be in the conservative camp. I thought him conservative as well on his work on Jeremiah, but not nearly as much on Daniel. Unless I am just affected by varying moods when I read, these differences seem real to me. But in this case, here on Ezekiel, there’s not a whole lot that’s going to bother a conservative reader. Maybe too many of us have found him overly critical in some cases, because he himself places this commentary on the “conservative end of the spectrum of Ezekiel scholarship” (page 14).

I always find his work captivating and exquisitely written. That is the case again. I found myself sitting on the porch on a beautiful spring afternoon enjoying reading the introduction to this work. He always gets me thinking and he definitely has not lost his touch in this volume. His scholarly skill was on display too when he talked about, say, the difference between the poetry and prose of Ezekiel. Near the end, he gave something of a dispassionate overview of how Ezekiel has been seen over the years. He even ended the section describing what is to me some of the lunacy of our present time, but he did not seem taken in by it.

The commentary proper was again excellent. Whether he steps back to see the forest or steps closer to see the trees, he gives you things that are truly helpful. I’m a fan of this series, and I mark this one another winner. 

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

This commentary represents some serious work. Its theological orientation runs contrary to my own; but if you discount its critical thrust, you will find much learning to process. Yes, critical studies often indiscriminately lunge at the Bible, but here the blade is not as sharp as most. It has its moments (Micah as a killjoy! ), but I at least felt that Ms. Sharp liked Micah. She could be winsome toward this book at times. I often like one critical commentary to understand how a biblical book is thought about and this one stands ready to be that volume for me on Micah.

Four sections make up the introduction in this commentary. By far sections two and four are the most helpful. I really can’t get on much with section 3 at all. I tried, but I just couldn’t do it. Section 2 on literary dimensions (structure) was quite helpful and interesting. Section 4, which is called an overview of the history of consequences, is really a good overview of how Micah has been interpreted. This section of 60 pages goes really deep and offers help at the level of some much larger series. Both Jewish and Christian traditions are surveyed appropriately. As you might expect, the bibliography leans left, but is fairly full.

The commentary section can be interesting. For me as a conservative Bible student, it can at times be an out-of-the-box viewpoint that gets you really thinking. Of course, at other times, it would be out in left field, and I would just skim. Because of where I stand, I’m going to rate a critical commentary mostly on its ability to give me something to think about that I find compelling and that I otherwise would never have considered, not on its theological accuracy across the board. This commentary really delivers on that count.

I’m going to be really interested to see what this series delivers in future volumes, but for this one on Micah it delivers exactly what I was looking for. 

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.