Ruth: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text

Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible

by Robert D. Holmstedt

Rather than devote space to the type of theological and exegetical comments found in most commentaries, this series focuses on the Hebrew text and its related issues, syntactic and otherwise. The volumes serve as prequels to commentary proper, providing guides to understanding the linguistic characteristics of the texts from which the messages of the texts may then be derived. In addition to this, Ruth , the newest volume in the series, handbooks on Amos , Genesis 1-11 , and Jonah are also now available.

Genres: Theology

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Robert D. Holmstedt (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is associate professor of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario. His primary research interest is the linguistic study of Northwest Semitic languages.

Reviews

[Margaret Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got me through my elementary Hebrew class when we were reading Ruth. Comprehensive, easy to navigated, and helped me understand elements of grammar in practice.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction is very good for a summary of Hebrew clauses. Also the Linguistic features intro is very interesting to read. Good guide to the Hebrew text of Ruth.

[Baylor University Press]

"This commentary on Ruth from the Hebrew text (phrase by phrase) is written with the awareness that Ruth or/and Jonah are usually the first Hebrew texts learners of biblical Hebrew read. Pages 1–50 summarize relevant aspects of Hebrew grammar, semantics, and pragmatics (how syntactic and semantic options are manipulated) that the student should be familiar with. Linguistic features show no clear needbased borrowing from Aramaic, so one thinks of the early Persian period as the time of writing. Holmstedt is attentive to nuances. For example, “due to the famine in Israel, someone from the town named ‘House of Bread’ [Bethlehem:] had to leave to find provision as an alien in a foreign land” (p. 55). The comments in places explain the use of accents and the grammatical changes they induce in words/phrases.
In short, the author has given students a valuable step-by-step introduction to reading the text of the Hebrew Bible."

--Bible Today, July 2010

[Kate Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very helpful close reading of the Book of Ruth, but, as my professor stated it, "not written for us mere mortals" who have not studied Biblical Hebrew extensively.

[Matthew Bonzon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly helpful work to help you navigate the Hebrew text of Ruth!
In my opinion this is the best of the BHHB series, Holmstedt exegesis of the text is clear, detailed, and well grounded.