Ehud Ben Zvi explores the prophetic book of Micah as a written document that presents itself as YHWH’s word. He examines how Micah was read by its ancient audience and explores the social setting upon which the biblical book stands. Emphasis is placed on the construction of the past, on the images of the future, and on the relevance of both of these to the current community of readers for whom the book was intended. The commentary not only deals extensively with the message of Micah but with the social function of this and other prophetic books in ancient Israel. Ben Zvi’s various lines of investigation lead to a deeper understanding of Micah and its enduring message.

In this important book, Shaw deploys a rigorous and systematic rhetorical analysis in the service of a reconstruction of the historical setting of each of the discourses in Micah. Unlike Muilenburg's "rhetorical criticism", this approach focuses on the persuasiveness of the discourses, the means by which the author achieves his goal. Among Shaw's tools is the concept of the rhetorical situation. It involves not only the question of the identity of the narratees, but also objective factors like events, conditions and attitudes to which the discourse responds and subjective factors like the speaker's own view of the situation. For each discourse the author analyses its goals and strategy, determining the structure of the speeches, the function of each part in the persuasiveness of the speech, the kinds of proof and the style utilized in order to achieve the author's goals. Product Details Title: Speeches of Micah: A Rhetorical-Historical Analysis Author: Charles S....

Mason here provides a valuable basic orientation to the modern reading of these short and often difficult minor prophets. By carefully surveying and evaluating the historical-critical options that have been proposed during the last century, he outlines the message of these books within a post-exilic, canonical context. Although scholars hold diverging assumptions about the authorship of Micah, Mason asserts that the book must be read as a coherent whole. Mason views the work as a post-exilic tract which re-interprets the prophet’s message in the light of the situation after the exile. For Nahum and Obadiah, whose apparent theology of hate for foreigners has limited their interpretive appeal, the argument that the books were designed to function as part the Book of the Twelve—the singular book of prophets from Amos through Jonah referred to as the “Twelve Prophets” in the Wisdom of Ben Sirach—must be taken seriously.

This challenge to understand the heart of the original Scriptures, in order to put the original text into a new language, was the impetus for the United Bible Societies to create handbooks for Bible translators working on this very thing. The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series is a comprehensive verse-by-verse guide to understanding exactly what is being communicated by the author in the original Scriptures.

The prophetic books of the Bible contain some of the most difficult passages in the entire Old Testament and can prove especially confusing for those new to this corpus. Handbook on the Prophets offers a thorough and insightful introduction for the beginning student of the Old Testament prophetic literature. Robert Chisholm guides students through the important and often complex writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets.