Ruth: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text (Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible) Paperback – Illustrated, January 15, 2010

This handbook, by Robert Holmstedt, is essentially a syntactic commentary on the Hebrew text of Ruth. This makes it an extremely valuable resource for the budding Hebrew student as it fills a gap between introductory textbooks and the sometimes daunting intermediate/advanced grammars. Holmstedt's commentary walks the student through each verse explaining everything from parsings to word-order choices. Additionally, Holmstedt is one of the very few Hebrew scholars who apply generative linguistics to Biblical Hebrew. As a result of this methodology he takes some syntactic stances that will be puzzling to many Hebrew students and scholars alike—most notable is his insistence that Hebrew is a SVO language, but that there is nearly always something to "mark" a clause and elevate the V over the S. Helpfully, Holmstedt provides a fairly thorough and technical essay on this as part of the introduction. Throughout the text of the commentary this issue causes zero confusion, because all scholars note deviations from the "normal" word pattern for emphasis, change of speaker, etc... Rather, Holmstedt's linguistic views have rendered a fresh commentary that uses language which is sensible and up-to-date to speak about how Hebrew works. I often found Holmstedt's discussions to be illuminating and clear. He is especially good when he uses syntax to weigh in (albeit briefly) on interpretive issues in the book, e.g. what did or didn't Boaz and Ruth do on the threshing floor? Finally, as alluded to above, Holmstedt provided a substantial amount of introductory material to this handbook. These brief essays are helpful in setting up his approach, introducing a beginning student to some of the exciting conversations in Hebrew linguistics, and providing an entryway into the work of one of the top (and youngest) Hebrew scholars working today. Five starts because this book is a book with a job to do and it does it well.

Beautiful, clean Hebrew font here! I often fear purchasing OT technical works in Kindle because in some works, the Hebrew font cannot be re-sized along with the English text, and/or the Hebrew text has such poor resolution that even when enlarged it is almost unreadable. No such problem here.I cannot wait to take my intermediate Hebrew-reading skills to the next level, after I finish the Hebrew Exegesis course I am taking online right now. Looks like I have found the perfect guidebook to help me continue with profitable self-study when I begin translating through the book of Ruth.

To maintain and improve my Hebrew after seminary, one of my professors recommended that I work through this volume. I have 20 pages left, and the journey has been invaluable. Holmstedt's analysis of Ruth's syntax has, I feel, given me a better grasp of the language and greater confidence/capability in reading Hebrew.I recommend it to all, especially to those who worked through Jonah in seminary and are looking for a place to continue. I look forward to going through his analysis of Esther (and later Ecclesiasties), also in this series.

Every verb is parsed, every construction is explained. Don't expect much exegetical depth and you won't be disappointed. Nice complement to other commentaries, but I wouldn't make it my only commentary of Ruth

This was a helpful book, and I would recommend it to anyone with some decent Hebrew who wants to understand better. It won't be enough by itself, but it will certainly be a worthy contributer to your study.

This book was required for my class in Hebrew Exegesis. The author is an astute grammarian so some of the material was difficult for my comprehension.

Great book. Used it for my Beginners/Intermediate Summer Language Program at Harvard.

The item was as described. The price was great. It arrived shortly. A very interesting read.

shipping speed it better than I thought. Good as a gift

I bought this book on impulse because I felt that I needed a commentary to help me with my interlinear (Hebrew/English) version of the Book of Ruth. I have given Robert Holmstedt's Handbook only a three star rating not as a criticism of the undoubted learning which has gone into writing and producing it, but in order to emphasise the point that this commentary is too advanced for those like myself whose knowledge of biblical Hebrew is still very basic. I feel that one needs to be an advanced Hebrew scholar in order to profit from this work, and that th is should be made clear to prospective purchasers.