Word Biblical Commentary: 1 Samuel

This is the leading scholarly commentary series firmly committed to Scripture as the Word of God.

In this commentary, Dr. Klein uses the tools and techniques of historical criticism to interpret the final, deuteronomistic form of the book of Samuel. For each pericope, he supplies a bibliography, a fresh translation, and extensive text-critical notes. Because of the complex charater of the Masoretic Text, Dr. Klein gives extensive space to text-critical questions. Yet, readers with no dvanced skills in Hebrew or interest in textual criticism may pass over the Notes and fully understand the rest of the commentary.Dr. Klein has chosen a historical reading as the best way to describe what 1 Samuel meant to its original audience. He has also taken care to appreciate the aestheic qualities of the text and to read it as a whole, the way in which those who first read or heard 1 Samuel understood it.

For this Second Edition of the work, Dr. Klein has made minor revisions to the text, and has updated the references and bibliographies.

Ralph W. Klein is Christ Seminary-Seminex professor of Old Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). He has written for numerous journals, has been editor of Currents in Theology and Mission since 1974, and is an associate editor of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly. His books include Textual Criticism of the Old Testament, Israel in Exile, Ezekiel: the Prophet and his Message; and the commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah in the New Interpreter's Bible. Klein received his M.Div. from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and his Th.D. from Harvard University.