Hosea

James Mays's OTL (1969) was the scholarly standard before Wolff's Hermeneia, and many people think of Mays as more insightful, but much has happened in Hosea scholarship since Mays wrote this book. As with Wolff, Mays has several important commentaries on other minor prophets. His Interpretation commentary on Psalms is one of the best in that series, and his concern with speaking to the pastor as much as to the scholar shows through in this commentary too. Mays considers much of the book to be later material added to Hosea's prophecies by other people. He's a little more theologically-focused than Macintosh's Hermeneia or Andersen-Freedman's Anchor Bible, but this is primarily restricted to the theology just of Hosea without much connection to a more wide-ranging biblical theology. He isn't as strong on other common features of a commentary, e.g. philology or text criticism. [Full Review]

A concise and well-written commentary from the form critical perspective. [Full Review]