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Product Description

Finalist in the ECPA 2009 Christian Book Awards program in the Bible Reference & Study category

The New International Biblical Commentary (NIBC) offers the best of contemporary scholarship in a format useful both for general readers and serious students.

Based on the widely used New International Version translation, the NIBC presents careful section-by-section exposition with key terms and phrases highlighted and all Hebrew transliterated. A separate section of notes at the close of each chapter provides additional textual and technical comments. Each commentary also includes a selected bibliography as well as Scripture and subject indexes.

“Longman has added another fine commentary to his credit with this volume in the NIBC series. The complexity and sheer volume of Jeremiah–Lamentations are well known, but Longman’s presentation controls the material admirably, while also producing an extremely accessible, manageable commentary.”
—Pete Enns, Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Hermeneutics, Westminster Theological Seminary

“Tremper Longman''''s work is a thoughtful guide that brings readers along almost like a companion in conversation. When reading Longman one is given access to several contexts for an informed understanding. The historical contexts impacting Jeremiah and Lamentations are discussed, the literary contexts that shape the forms of expression are explicated, and the canonical context in which the books are rooted is frequently noted. Taken together, these assist the reader in coming to grips with two Scriptural works, and at the same time, being grasped by them.”
—J. Andrew Dearman, Professor of Old Testament, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Reviews

“The complexities of the book of Jeremiah are navigated in this commentary with ease and clarity. This is a fine addition to an important commentary series. The fundamental questions of time and place of composition, genre, and literary style are treated in the Introduction. A section-by-section commentary follows. Though Lamentations is credited to Jeremiah, Longman agrees with those scholars who maintain that such authorship is possible, though not probable. When discussing the acrostic form of the laments that comprise that second biblical book he points to the ease in recognizing the form but the difficulty in understanding its rationale. This study will prove to be a useful resource in the study of two very important biblical books.”
—The Bible Today

“Limited by the constraints of the NIBC series, Longman has just 320 pages to cover Jeremiah's 52 chapters-this equates to the book of Ephesians being treated in 32 pages-so that the reader should not expect each difficult word to be explained, or scholarly debates about the book's pre-history to be engaged. The focus must remain on the NIV text of Jeremiah as history, literature and theology, though Longman also manages to engage recent scholarship.

“The Introduction touches on the history of Jeremiah's composition, the historicity of the prophet and the historical context. Longman judges that the biblical Jeremiah reflects both a historical person and a literary construction of unknown editors in that the literary growth of the book is long and complex, but rooted in the period of the historical Jeremiah. His treatment of the book's textual history is necessarily cursory, and contains one doubtful assertion (p. 9), whereby he implies that the presence of haplographies in the parent text of the Septuagint make it potentially later than the parent text of the MT. (Being accidental, such abridgements in fact have little bearing on the argument.)

“These historical questions are foundational, since the commentary itself is much concerned with matters of who, when and where. Both the poetic oracles and the prose sermons and narratives are read as authentically Jeremianic, and one of the volume's strengths is the helpful way Longman contextualises Jeremiah, whether inner-biblically, e.g. the deuteronomic background of Jeremiah 27-28, or politically, e.g. the details of Babylon's fall, which guard against un-literal or simplistic readings of Jeremiah 50-51. His approach generally remains within a naturalistic framework as he debates questions such as the extent of Jeremiah's foreknowledge (see for example the commentary on 1: 11-16 or 4: 11-18). Given Longman's interest in the Bible as literature, it is a little disappointing to see historical questions predominate over the literary. The Introduction briefly describes six literary genres of the book, and makes some cautious suggestions about structure (or lack thereof!). As with the historical debate, Longman takes a mediating position on structure, discerning a general flow in the largest units of the book, but rejecting the idea that a scheme has determined the arrangement of smaller units. This reviewer would have liked to see some engagement with the contrasting conclusions of Louis Stulman and Martin Kessler.

“As a result of this approach, the book of Jeremiah feels like an anthology in Longman's hands, especially in chapters 1 - 25 and 46-51. While such an approach is eminently justifiable, it does raise the question of the editor's contribution. If Jeremiah is in part a constructed persona, then do we see this reflected in the construction of the book itself? To do him justice, Longman often argues for larger literary units than many other commentators, e.g. Jer 16: 121 i 17: 12-18, and he does refer on occasion to large units proposed by scholars, such as the Baruch memoir of 36-45.

“On the smaller scale, Longman is perforce very concise, making selected references to the meanings of words and phrases, to elements of prosody and linguistic playfulness, and to the literary impact of the reuse of material within the book. He does a good job of selecting inner-biblical parallels and echoes to mention.

“Longman's contribution is more distinct when it comes to theology, where he chooses the theme of covenant as the thread that ties the book together. Jeremiah is a 'covenant lawyer', bringing charges from Deuteronomy against the people, and following covenant curses with promises of future restoration couched in covenant terms. Once again, however, there is little space to explore this scheme, and many other theological questions must be left aside, including those raised by the historical considerations that dominate Longman's work. Indeed, Longman's solutions tend to be historical before they are theological, e.g. God's 'deceit' in Jer 4:9-10, which he explains by reference to the 'lying spirit' of 1 Kings 22:23, rather than grappling with it in terms of the book's own theology. Historical considerations are the right place to start, but tor the reader who wishes to explore Jeremiah in depth, Longman's volume provides no more than a start, albeit a sure-footed and reliable one .”
—The Reformed Theological Review

“L.'s careful attention to content results in commentary that will never be less than helpful for the intended general audience. L.’s work provides a fine example of the series goal of combining critical acumen with 'Christian affection'.”
—Society for Old Testament Study Book List

"In a short review of this nature it is clearly impossible to note all the strengths of this work, but it is hoped that what has been said above will be enough to convince all scholars and students of the value of this work. The work is concluded with an appropriate bibliography, an index of subjects (it also includes authors), and a scriptural index."
—Review of Biblical Literature

Tremper Longman III is Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College. He is a highly respected author of many books on the Bible, including An Introduction to the Old Testament, How to Read Proverbs, and Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs.

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