1 and 2 Samuel
in Teach the Text Commentary Series
Pages
368
Publisher
Baker Books
Published
3/1/2013
ISBN-13
9780801092251
To craft informed sermons, pastors scour commentaries that often deal more with minutia than the main point. Or they turn to devotional commentaries, which may contain exegetical weaknesses. The Teach the Text Commentary Series bridges this gap by utilizing the best of biblical scholarship and providing the information a pastor needs to communicate the text effectively. By keeping the discussion of each carefully selected preaching unit to six pages of focused commentary, the volumes in this series allow pastors to quickly grasp the big idea and key themes of each passage of Scripture. The text and its meaning are made clear, and sections dedicated to effectively teaching and illustrating the text help pastors prepare to preach. Full-color illustrations, maps, and photos are included throughout each volume to illustrate the world and events described in the Bible.
The first two volumes of this series edited by Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton are Romans and 1 & 2 Samuel.
The first two volumes of this series edited by Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton are Romans and 1 & 2 Samuel.
Reviews
DavidH
August 8, 2026
August 8, 2026
Chisholm’s volume is surprisingly rich for its compact format and has perhaps the highest concentration of fresh literary and intertextual observations of any commentary in this group. He is especially adept at noticing verbal echoes that connect individual episodes and reveal the narrator’s evaluation of the characters. A superb example occurs in 2 Samuel 12: David calls Nathan’s rich man a “son of death,” the same unusual expression Saul earlier used of David, so that David now unwittingly pronounces on himself the judgment Saul had once wrongly pronounced on him. Similar connections repeatedly show David beginning to resemble Saul while also tracing providential parallels across the two books. It is not a replacement for Firth or Tsumura on technical matters, but as a source of concise, original and genuinely useful exegetical insight it is exceptional.
R. Hansen
November 1, 2017
November 1, 2017
This has helpful comments and pictures and background information. But not nearly as complete as many others. Surprisingly, as this commentary is designed to help in teaching, the application and teaching sections were rarely helpful.