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Katharine J. Dell, The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 1–15. By Bruce K. Waltke. Pp. xxxvi + 693. (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament.) Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2004. isbn 0 8028 2545 1. £32.95/$50, The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 57, Issue 1, April 2006, Pages 200–203, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/fli116
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Extract
This commentary was twenty-five years in the making and the depth of analysis undertaken witnesses to the merits of taking time over treatment of such a key biblical book. A fresh translation (with footnotes) is provided of each passage under discussion and key areas of structure, form, language, imagery, genre, and theology are covered in the discussion of verses or sections of verses. Waltke attacks two scholarly conclusions in particular—he accuses scholars of substituting trust in man for trust in God and for substituting world order for divine retribution. In short, he prefers a more God-centred interpretation of Proverbs than has often been the case. He sees ‘the fear of the LORD’ as the keynote of the book and regards the divine aspect in the book as essential to its understanding. He sees scholarly discussions of world order as detracting from divine activity in the book, but many scholars would contest whether the concept of world order and its accompanying grounding in social order is necessarily deterministic to the extent that it makes the divine dimension nothing more than that of ‘Watchmaker’.
