The Book of Judges

Webb’s NICOT volume is the best all-round commentary on Judges that I have read. Its great strength is its integrated literary and theological reading of the whole book, especially the progressive deterioration of Israel’s leaders, the contribution of the minor judges, the relationship between the main cycles and the concluding narratives, and the portrayal of Samson as both a deeply flawed individual and a representative of Israel. Webb combines substantial scholarly engagement with an unusually warm and readable style, keeping much of the technical discussion in the footnotes without sacrificing exegetical depth. His complementarian interpretation of the Deborah narrative is clearly stated and carefully argued, although readers may differ over whether the text requires so sharp a distinction between Deborah’s prophetic and judicial authority and Barak’s military role. This point does little to diminish the commentary’s originality, theological insight and consistent usefulness.

Webb’s commentary is a helpful tool to pastors who are looking for a detailed verse-by-verse exposition of Judges. Webb seeks to faithfully employ a conservative hermeneutic when working with the text. [Full Review]

Barry Webb’s NICOT is another more recent volume (2012), but it builds on a monograph Webb wrote decades ago that has shaped literary and theological discussion of Judges. His literary observations are brilliant and provide a foundation for rich and robust exegesis of the book as a whole. [Full Review]

Don’t let Webb’s ranking fool you, this commentary is also very good. To be honest, any of these top five commentaries, especially 2-5 could be switched up. All of them will serve a student of God’s Word well. Webb’s commentary is semi-technical, although the footnotes do include much technical discussion for the reader that is interested... [Full Review]

Other than a real serious misreading of the Deborah narrative, this is a very, very good commentary. Webb tries to downplay the obvious in the Deborah cycle, and upholds a complementarian view of gender by making Deborah less of an authority figure in Israel than the text presents, and even brings in the notion of the eternal subordination of the Son to make Deborah's authority a mere bi-product of Barak's failure to fulfill his role. But Webb's analysis of the Samson narrative in particular is very, very good. The formatting of NICOT is one I really appreciate, and the commitment to both detail and accessibility makes this series a really praiseworthy achievement. Webb provides a thoroughly engaged scholarly exegesis of the text, but manages to maintain a good, readable flow by keeping most of the technical data in the footnotes for interested readers.