Lamentations and Ezekiel for Everyone

Author John Goldingay
Publisher SPCK £9.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780281061396

This pilgrimage of translation and commentary through the Old Testament has now reached Lamentations and Ezekiel. Some readers may suspect the pilgrim’s progress has reached the Slough of Despond, but John Goldingay has done his best to make these hard books accessible. As earlier in this series, there are some curious features of translation. Thus we have Young Man where NRSV has Mortal and KJV has Son of Man and the backsliders’ idols are unceremoniously condemned as Lumps. The need to produce just one book to cover such a complex pair as these has meant that the sections of commentary are necessarily briefer than one might like, so if you want to know about Ezekiel’s life or how he relates to other prophets look elsewhere and students of Lamentations would be better with the recent IVP commentary by Christopher Wright (see Autumn 2016 review p.33). So this book gives us Goldingay as a companion on our pilgrimage rather than our guide. I think we could cast him as Hopeful.

PETER THORNTON

Old Testament Analysis