Job: An Introduction and Commentary
By W. Dennis Tucker Jr. (IVP Academic)
The Book of Job is a famously difficult part of Scripture. Most of us don’t want to read page after page of what seems like endless ruminating about suffering. Yet, because most of us will experience significant suffering at least once in our lives, or someone we care for deeply will experience such suffering, we are drawn to Job.
We want to know how Job dealt with his suffering. We want to know what questions he had about God, because we have similar questions and want to know the answers.
As profound as Job is on its surface, there are riches just underneath. Dennis Tucker excavates them in his forthcoming commentary on Job.
Tucker is professor of Christian Scriptures at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. He has written commentaries on Psalms 73-150, Jonah, and Malachi, in addition to other work on Old Testament theology.
His forthcoming commentary on Job is part of the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries published by IVP Academic and is something of an update on the previous volume in the series by Francis Andersen published in 1976 and reissued in 2008. The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries are more or less verse-by-verse, with each section of commentary divided into context, comment, and meaning.
The Tyndale series seeks to provide thorough and accessible commentary. Tucker achieves that with his work on Job, which is famously difficult among biblical scholars for reasons other than subject matter—namely, its Hebrew. In his introduction, which some readers may find too academic, Tucker considers the challenges Job presents. The remainder of the commentary is much more accessible to the general student of Job.
The bulk of Job is poetry, and Tucker brings his expertise in Hebrew poetry and wisdom literature, as well as the Hebrew language, to bear here. Tucker’s analysis and comment throughout both the book’s poetry and prose turn the black-and-white pages of Job into something like a masterful pop-up book. Job becomes multidimensional—just like profound suffering and the questions such suffering stirs.
Those who give the time to read Job should also have Tucker’s forthcoming commentary alongside.
Eric Black, executive director/publisher/editor
Baptist Standard
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