Hosea

While readable for a wide audience, Hubbard’s work is notable for its thoroughness. Longman writes, “Hubbard’s commentary on Hosea is proportionately one of the most extensive in the series. . . [Hubbard profices] a compellingly written, thoughtful analysis of Hosea’s prophecy.” [Full Review]

I'm in the minority and hate to be too critical of a fine scholar, but this book I struggled with. The introduction is workmanlike and does its job. The first three chapters are in the same vein. Once you get to chapter 4, the parenthesis start in earnest. One sentence had them and long digressions between every single word. There can be 10 references to other verses or four references to other works several times in a sentence. For the intro type student, it is just too much. There is a certain type of scholarly writing that you see in academia and thesis and such that is so dense as to be unreadable to the non-specialist. This book borders on that style. It is hard to even comment on content as too often I was just confused by the format. A better book for you who are better educated and understand such technical writing.

David Hubbard's TOTC (1989) is far more detailed than most commentaries in this series (234 pages), and this commentary has been fairly well received. I generally trust the judgments of Garrett (NAC), Stuart (WBC), or Kidner (BST) more than I would Hubbard's, but it's a pretty inexpensive way to get a somewhat detailed exegesis, with some focus directed toward literary and theological concerns. I consider Hubbard to be a moderate evangelical. [Full Review]

The Tyndale Commentary series is one of the most consistently good series available. Hubbard's commentary on Hosea is a good example why. The book is somewhat longer than one would expect for a commentary in this series on a book the size of Hosea, but that allows Hubbard to dig deeper into the meaning of the text. The result is a very valuable introductory level commentary. [Full Review]

Helpful commentary with some concern for literary features. Evangelical. [Full Review]