The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (New International Commentary on the Old Testament)

“With a lifetime of investment in studying the main critical issues, Renz has produced a learned and judicious commentary on three prophetic books. He is aware of more recent efforts to think of the Twelve as a whole, and the contribution of these three books in that same context, though he is cautious about preserving their individual character. This is a commentary with technical expertise and pastoral sensitivity. An impressive contribution to the well-regarded NICOT series.”

“I can highly recommend this carefully researched, well-rounded, and comprehensive commentary. Its close attention to text-historical, text-critical, and literary issues makes this a very valuable addition to the scholarly library. Renz interprets the three books as distinct literary units which address matters of import for Judah living in the shadow of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires, yet he also explores their significance when read within the Book of the Twelve, the wider Protestant Canon, and later Christian reception”

“Thomas Renz has written an outstanding commentary on Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Scholarly yet pastoral, thorough yet accessible; students and preachers of these books alike will be helped enormously. Renz doesn’t smother the text under a weight of detail but lets it live, explaining it lucidly and helping us see its trajectories for Christian thinking and application.”

“Renz’s commentary on Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah is amazingly meticulous and encyclopedic in its detailed attention to essential aspects of interpretation: text and translation, vocabulary and intertextual connections, poetic form and diction, compositional structure, reception-historical highlights, and profound reflection on theological implications that often extends into the New Testament—all of it clearly argued and exhaustively documented. This will become a standard reference work, especially for scholars, and also for pastors, theology students, and studious lay persons who seek to interpret the text from a perspective of faith.”