Abstract
The book of Judges is probably one of the most readable and exciting books of the Hebrew Bible, whilst it may also be viewed as one of the least edifying, with its tales of battles, conquest, sacrifices, adultery, rape and more. For the Hebrew teacher, many of its relatively short stories are ideal for class reading, although the Rule of St Benedict included it among the books that should not be read at night. A commentary on this fascinating book is no straightforward task, and Klaas Spronk is to be congratulated on this tour de force in the study of the book of Judges.
Professor Spronk’s Preface sets the scene well, saying that the book is popular with storytellers and not with theologians, who rarely engage with the book in any detail. He sees the book as written by one talented author in the early Hellenistic period, who used a variety of sources to write an introduction to the history of the Kings of Israel and Judah that will be told in the books of the Kings. He suggests that Joshua, Judges and 1-2 Samuel were originally one book, which was later split owing to the size of the scrolls, but the beginning and end of Judges were added later.
The book begins with an excellent introduction to the book, setting out Spronk’s view of the structure, authorship, literary features etc. of the book, before moving on to the detailed commentary, which follows the usual HCOT structure of Translation; Additional Bibliography (extremely extensive); Essentials and Perspectives; Scholarly Exposition (I): Introduction to the Exegesis; and Scholarly Exposition (II): Introduction to the Exegesis (II). Professor Spronk pays close and detailed attention to the language of the book, noting wordplay, puns, humour, rhyming, chiastic and thematic structures, and repetition of vocabulary, with particular emphasis on threefold repetition. Spronk’s translation of the text is quite literal and in some cases unusually colloquial. In 1:15, כי is translated as ‘Yeah’; in 2:2, the Israelites are not to ‘cut a covenant’ with the people of the land; and in 6:19 Gideon prepares ‘matzos’. This is a pleasing feature of the translation, which will greatly help the reader who is unable to access the Hebrew original. He is also very aware of parallels with ancient Greek literature, such as the Iliad and the works of Euripides. He includes some nice psychological insights into the characters, and uses the rabbinic and patristic commentaries in order to give greater depth to his exegesis and the reader’s understanding of the biblical text. Some readers, however, may be disappointed by the minimal consideration of issues of historicity and archaeology.
The text of the commentary is clearly written, with very occasional inconsistencies of spelling (e.g. Kimchi/Qimchi and pericope/perikope). Quotations from Hebrew are vocalised and the relevant Greek translations are included and discussed. A number of German sources are used and left untranslated, as are some French sources. These further the discussion but any reader who cannot read German or French will not find themselves greatly disadvantaged by this.
Professor Spronk has included some useful tables to show the spread of narratives about the different judges, parallels with other texts and the Appendix shows ‘The Pericopes Within the Book of Judges According to MT and LXX Manuscripts’, with web addresses for the Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.
Any exegete working on the book of Judges will want to refer to this volume and theological libraries with a good Scripture section should seriously consider investing in this commentary.