Hosea, Joel, and Amos

Overall, then, my summary on Twitter stands – this is a competent but over-clinical and critical commentary. It is quite readable and had some useful additional information for those of us wanting to dig a little deeper. The lack of running heads makes navigation a little tricky – for the more regular reader, who unlike me is probably not reading it through as a book – but the inclusion of footnotes means you tend to be able to stay on the page you need. A common problem – less present in the commentary on Amos than on Hosea/Joel – for me as a reader/reviewer thinking of preachers, is that by and large there is not much application or practical insight here, and often there is a relatively (Even-handed, to be sure) uninteresting rehearsal of the current scholarly consensus. That isn’t to say that this is a bad book, or even a bad commentary, but it isn’t one that I’d warmly recommend to anyone beyond those particularly interested in the highest level of study of Hosea, Joel and Amos. [Full Review]