Holmstedt's volume is a mine of information and insight... certainly a book that will repay investment.
~D. W. Rooke, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
An up-to-date resource valuable for intermediate students. Holmstedt provides a strong focus on the connection between syntax and nuance of meaning.
~Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, William Albright Eisenberger Professor of Old Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary
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.
~James Chukwuma Okoye, CSSp, Bible Today
Designed for the intermediate student to the advanced researcher, Holmstedt's Ruth is a wonderful paragon of an informed merging of traditional Hebrew grammatical analysis with insights from the modern linguistic analysis of Hebrew. With conciseness and clarity, Holmstedt demonstrates the great value of a linguistically informed analysis of biblical Hebrew, not only for the book of Ruth, but for biblical texts in general.
~K. Lawson Younger Jr., Professor of Old Testament, Semitic Languages, and Ancient Near Eastern History, Trinity International University Divinity School
An excellent linguistic pathway through Ruth. Students will find his systematic approach and his inclusion of pedagogic aids very helpful, and scholars will appreciate the breadth of his textual comments that make this much more than just a syntactical handbook or guide to grammatical forms.
~Victor H. Matthews, Dean, College of Humanities and Public Affairs, Missouri State University
This volume will benefit both students and scholars with an in-depth discussion of Hebrew grammar and syntax as well as some lexicography and etymology of obscure words. Overall, Holmstedt provides students of Biblical Hebrew with a technical, but accessible study of the text of the book of Ruth.
~Adam J. Howell, Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies
