Hosea: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 1999 by Smith, Gary V

This commentary uses an impressive list of early resources (the bibliography has more than 30 works before 1900, plus his constant discussion of rabbinic comments), but to our surprise there are less than a dozen books and articles from 1990 to the present. It is a shame that Freedman and Andersen's giant Anchor Bible tome (from 1980) is never consulted, Stuart's 1987 Word Bible Commentary section on Hosea is found missing, and Brueggemann's 1968 study of Tradition in Crisis is ignored. In spite of the fact that this is not an up-to-date study, the new renditions of problem passages will rekindle fresh insights that will help interpreters understand this difficult book, unless new authors choose to follow Macintosh's example and ignore almost everything that has been published in the last ten years.

Gary V. Smith

Bethel Theological Seminary, St. Paul, MN