Jonah

Susan Nidich focuses her research on oral literature and folklore as they apply to the OT. Such studies inform her latest commentary. [This] is not the typical historical critical study one might expect from the Hermeneia series. Though the author interacts with critical scholars and provides her own translation with text-critical analysis, the work focuses on questions like religious identity and how the story of Jonah is used in international folklore... [T]he book is organized in the standard Hermeneia format, with a fresh translation, textual notes, and verse-by-verse commentary. Niditch's translations are quixotic and very wooden, sounding "Yoda-like." Consider for example Jonah 1:9: "A Hebrew am I, and Yahweh ... I fear" (p. 38). She states that She wants to reflect the Hebrew style, but the approach goes overboard. In her textual commentary, Niditch gives a good sense of the story as it happens, noting the repetition of vocabulary and explaining themes (such as going downward into the ship/ocean). Unlike other commentaries, though, Niditch concludes each pericope with an overview discussion that addresses comparative folklore and textual whichin... As to the usefulness of the commentary, that depends upon what the reader is looking for. For detailed comments on the text one should look elsewhere. For information on how themes are appropriated in (or at least similar to) later cultures, this commentary excels. The commentary is full of interesting bits of information, such as Pirge R. Eliezer's writing on Jonah being carried to the temple locus while in the belly of the creature. However, Niditch does not then return to how these later appropriations might help one understand the meaning of the text. For a unique look at Jonah and its afterlife, this commentary provides help. For understanding this portion of Scripture, better options exist.