Hearing the Message of Scripture: A Commentary on the Old Testament

In an effort to serve pastors and teachers in their study of the text of the Old Testament for ministry, Zondervan has developed a set of distinctive features for this series:

Key Features and Distinctives

• A Graphical Display of the Text of Each Passage, enabling readers to grasp quickly and accurately the main idea of the text, its development, and supporting ideas; and allowing them to understand how the commentator arrived at this depiction and interpretation of the passage.
• Identification and Discussion of the Main Idea of Each Passage, with a special emphasis on identifying and discussing the main thrust of each passage and showing how it contributes to the development of the whole composition.
• Help in Drawing Out the Meaning of the Hebrew for Interpretation, drawing on Hebrew grammar in the service of meaning.
• Theological and Canonical Significance, providing a theological and applicational discussion of the main thrust of the passage, synthesizing the theology of the passage and elaborating on it. There are many 'exegetical' commentaries out there, but none accomplish what this series has achieved.

When dealing with specific texts, the authors of the commentaries in this series are concerned with three principal questions:

• What are the principal theological points the biblical writers are making?
• How do biblical writers make those points?
• What significance does the message of the present text have for understanding the message of the biblical book within which it is embedded and the message of the Scriptures as a whole?

The achievement of these goals requires careful attention to the way ideas are expressed in the OT, including the selection and arrangement of materials and the syntactical shaping of the text.

General Editor: Daniel I Block