1 Samuel (2nd ed.)

Klein is thorough. His contribution to the WBC series supplies the reader with an extensive bibliography of secondary literature, a close examination of the Hebrew text, and a careful exposition. [Full Review]

A little light on exposition, and not as thorough as Tsumura, but still very helpful commentary by a top notch scholar on OT narrative texts.

a good semi-technical volume in the same vein as Campbell’s.

Ralph Klein's WBC on I Samuel (1983) was the best academic work on I Samuel until Tsumura's NICOT appeared. From what I've seen, I would prefer Tsumura, but for all I know there may be many things Klein is better at. Klein is a skilled textual critic. He is more conservative than McCarter's Anchor Bible but just as knowledgeable about the issues, and he's more willing to defend rather than emend the MT than McCarter is. He still seems a bit too Septuagint-friendly for my tastes. Those with higher views of the LXX than I have will like him, although some might like McCarter even more. I'm not sure I would consider him an evangelical, even though the series advertizes itself as evangelical (in a very loose sense). Klein has a concern for the final form of the text, but he does engage in redaction criticism in a way that's far more speculative than I think is warranted. He is perhaps rivaled only by Tsumura on matters of language, but he gives very little attention to other matters that I would very much want in my preferred commentary on any book, particularly with regard to theology and literary issues. [Full Review]

A commentary concerned with the final form of the text. [Full Review]