I'm a big fan of Bruce Waltke's commentary on Genesis (paid link). He does a great job at holding together two tasks that are vital. It's easy to lose one whilst trying to do the other. He both pays attention to the narrative craft of Genesis, and at the same time tracks the overall storyline of Genesis and what the book as a whole is communicating.
Zedekiah, king of Judah (597-587 B.C.) consistently expected that God would bring a last minute reprieve, and he and his people would not be conquered by the Babylonians. He underestimated the sin of his people, and he underestimated God's power to deal with that.
For this reason, the prophet Jeremiah consistently has to warn him that there will be no reprieve. Into exile they will go.
This is one of those posts I'm putting here because I know I'll look for this again, and if it's on my own website I can search and find it quickly. It might also help someone else.
Tucked inside The BHS (Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia) is a small piece of paper, containing the Tabula Accentuum (table of accents). On one side is a list of the accents deployed by the Masoretes when annotating prose, and on the other side the ones they used when annotating poetry.
I wrote a longer post in 2010 that gave some thoughts on the book of Psalms and how we read them.
Today, I've been working on some notes to equip our small group leaders to lead a Bible study in Psalm 31. This comes as part of a series of Bible studies that look at passages that speak on the theme of prayer.
Paul wrote to Timothy: "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching." (1 Timothy 4:13)
A thought on why Ezekiel 40-48 are such important chapters.
The other day I was reading 2 Chronicles 6:36-39, the prayer that Solomon prays when he dedicates the new temple he's just built. If the people are exiled, they can pray towards the city and the temple and God will hear.
"Of making many books there is no end" (Ecclesiastes 12:12)
If that was true when Ecclesiastes was written, how much more true is it in the days of social media. Surely the writer of Ecclesiastes would comment: "Of the writing of opinions on social media, there is no end"!
So often, when you read a commentary on part of the Bible you're studying, you have pages and pages of material but the commentator doesn't seem to be puzzling over the same details of the passage as you are.
How refreshing when the commentator asks exactly the questions you were asking, and has some very sensible things to say.
This year is the 300th anniversary of Robinson Crusoe (paid link), the debut novel of Daniel Defoe published on 25th April 1719. It is said to be the first novel published in the English language, and since 1719 has been printed in many editions. It is many years since I read it, so I thought it time to do so again.
The novel starts with Robinson's father seeking to persuade the stubborn lad not to go to sea. His efforts are sincere and emotional, but in vain.
There are lots of ways the New Testament is different from the Old. That's why it's called "New". A testament is another word for "covenant", and the book of Hebrews describes this by repeating the adjective "better".
But there are also lots of ways that the New Testament simply builds on the Old, transforming it, fulfilling it, colouring it in, but not replacing it. In fact, this is so much so, that when we read the Old Testament we rarely have to ask: "What is the complete contrast for us?", but far more often ask "What do the lessons here look like for us today?"
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