The Book of Ruth (New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT))

The book of Ruth contains one of the Bibles best-known and most-loved stories. This major commentary by Robert L. Hubbard Jr. shows how the author of Ruth used with great literary artistry the story of Ruth and Naomi to convey important theological themes. In his introduction Hubbard discusses the issues of text canonicity literary criticism authorship date purpose setting genre legal background themes and theology concluding with an outline of the book and a thorough bibliography. The commentary proper is based on Hubbards own fresh translation and accented by copious footnotes on textual philological and literary matters. Gleaning the best from recent research on Ruth Hubbard gives the storys rich literary grammatical and theological dimensions a careful rigorous treatment. He allows for the possibility that the anonymous author was a woman and argues that the narrative itself aims to counter opposition to the Davidic monarchy in Israel and Judah during Solomons reign. Throughout Hubbards sensitivity to the literary genius of Ruths author and his coherent explication of the outworking of the books theological themes make this volume an invaluable tool for anyone desiring to explore the intriguing story of Ruth in depth.