TABLE OF CONTENTS Brief Explanation About the Technical Resources Used in this Commentary Series .... i Brief Definitions of Hebrew Grammatical Forms Which Impact Exegesis........... iii Abbreviations Used in This Commentary.................................... ix How This Commentary Can Help You ...................................... xi A Guide to Good Bible Reading .......................................... xiii Introduction to Obadiah ...............................................1 Obadiah ...........................................................7 Introduction to Joel ..................................................24 Joel 1 ............................................................29 Joel 2 ............................................................42 Joel 3 ............................................................81 Introduction to Haggai ...............................................94 Haggai 1..........................................................97 Haggai 2.........................................................107 Introduction to Malachi .............................................117 Malachi 1 ........................................................123 Malachi 2........................................................137 Malachi 3........................................................148 Malachi 4........................................................163 Appendix One: Old Testament Prophecy ...................................173 Appendix Two: Hebrew Poetry...........................................178 Appendix Three: Brief Historical Survey of the Powers of Mesopotamia ..........181 Appendix Four: Chart of the Entire Old Testament............................190 Appendix Five: Timeline of the Post-Exilic Period ............................193 Appendix Six: Doctrinal Statement........................................194 SPECIAL TOPICS TABLE OF CONTENTS Names for Deity, Obadiah v. 1.......................................................10 Holy, Obadiah v. 17...............................................................20 Fire, Obadiah v. 18................................................................21 Biblical Attitudes Toward Alcohol and Alcoholism, Joel 1:5 ...............................32 Horns Used by Israel, Joel 2:1.......................................................46 Does Any Believer Ever Fall Away?, Joel 2:1...........................................48 Perseverance, Joel 2:1 .............................................................49 Repentance, Joel 2:12 .............................................................53 Heart, Joel 2:13 ..................................................................54 Characteristics of Israel’s God, Joel 2:13 ..............................................55 Lovingkindness (Hesed), Joel 2:13 ...................................................55 Righteousness, Joel 2:23 ...........................................................61 OT Covenant Promises Seem Different from NT Covenant Promises, Joel 2:28................66 The Trinity, Joel 2:28..............................................................72 Women in the Bible, Joel 2:28.......................................................74 Apocalyptic Literature, Joel 2:30-32..................................................76 This Age and the Age to Come, Joel 2:32..............................................78 Bob’s Evangelical Biases, Joel 2:32 ..................................................80 Israel, Joel 3:1 ...................................................................83 Feasts of Israel, Haggai 1:1 .........................................................98 Ancient Near Eastern Calendar, Haggai 1:1 ...........................................100 Glory, Haggai 1:8................................................................103 Spirit in the NT, Haggai 1:14.......................................................105 The Remnant, Three Senses, Haggai 1:14.............................................106 Covenant, Haggai 2:5.............................................................109 Forever (’Olam), Malachi 1:4 ......................................................126 The Fatherhood of God, Malachi 1:6 .................................................129 Anthropomorphic Language for God, Malachi 1:6 ......................................131 Abomination, Malachi 2:11........................................................142 Effective Prayer, Malachi 2:13 .....................................................144 Where Are the Dead?, Malachi 3:3..................................................152 Terms For God’s Revelation, Malachi 3:7.............................................156 Tithe In the Mosaic Legislation, Malachi 3:8 ..........................................158 Tithing, Malachi 3:10.............................................................159 Heaven, Malachi 3:10 ............................................................161 Wealth, Malachi 3:14.............................................................164 Mt. Sinai, Malachi 4:4............................................................170 Brief Explanations of the Technical Resources Used in the “You Can Understand the Bible” Old Testament Commentary Series I. Lexical There are several excellent lexicons available for ancient Hebrew. A. Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. It is based on the German lexicon by William Gesenius. It is known by the abbreviation BDB. B. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, translated by M. E. J. Richardson. It is known by the abbreviation KB. C. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by William L. Holladay and is based on the above German lexicon (#A). D. A new five volume theological word study entitled The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, edited by Willem A. Van Gemeren. It is known by the abbreviation NIDOTTE. Where there is significant lexical variety, I have shown several English translations (NASB, NKJV, NRSV, TEV, NJB) from both “word-for-word” and “dynamic equivalent” translations (cf. Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth, pp. 28-44). II. Grammatical The grammatical identification is usually based on John Joseph Owens’ Analytical Key to the Old Testament in four volumes. This is cross checked with Benjamin Davidson’s Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament. Another helpful resource for grammatical and syntactical features which is used in most of the OT volumes of “You Can Understand the Bible” Series is “The Helps for Translators Series” from the United Bible Societies. They are entitled “A Handbook on .” III. Textual I am committed to the inspiration of the consonantal Hebrew text (not the Masoretic vowel points and comments). As in all hand-copied ancient texts, there are some questionable passages. This is usually because of the following: A. hapax legomenon (words used only once in the Hebrew OT) B. idiomatic terms (words and phrases whose literal meanings have been lost) C. historical uncertainties (our lack of information about the ancient world) D. the poly-semitic semantic field of Hebrew’s limited vocabulary E. problems associated with later scribes hand-copying ancient Hebrew texts F. Hebrew scribes trained in Egypt who felt free to update the texts they copied to make them complete and understandable to their day (NIDOTTE, pp. 52-54). There are several sources of Hebrew words and texts outside the Masoretic textual tradition: 1. The Samaritan Pentateuch 2. The Dead Sea Scrolls 3. Some later coins, letters, and ostraca (broken pieces of unfired pottery used for writing), but for the most part, there are no manuscript families in the OT like those in the Greek NT manuscripts. For a good brief article on the textual reliability of the Masoretic Text (A.D. i 900's) see “The Reliability of the Old Testament Text” by Bruce K. Waltke in the NIDOTTE, vol. 1, pp. 51-67. The Hebrew text used is Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia from the German Bible Society, 1997, which is based on the Leningrad Codex (A .D. 1009). Occasionally, the ancient versions (Greek Septuagint, Aramaic Targums, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate) are consulted if the Hebrew is ambiguous or obviously confused. ii BRIEF DEFINITIONS OF HEBREW VERBAL FORMS WHICH IMPACT EXEGESIS I. Brief Historical Development of Hebrew Hebrew is part of the Shemitic (Semitic) family of southwest Asian languages. The name (given by modern scholars) comes from Noah’s son, Shem (cf. Gen. 5:32; 6:10). Shem’s descendants are listed in Gen. 10:21-31 as Arabs, Hebrews, Syrians, Arameans, and Assyrians. In reality, some Semitic languages are used by the nations listed in Ham’s line (cf. Gen. 10:6-14): Canaan, Phoenicia, and Ethiopia. Hebrew is part of the northwest group of these Semitic languages. Modern scholars have samples of this ancient language group: A. Amorite (Mari Tablets from 18th century B.C. in Akkadian) B. Canaanite (Ras Shamra Tablets from 15th century in Ugaritic) C. Canaanite (Amarna Letters from 14th century in Canaanite Akkadian) D. Phoenician (Hebrew uses Phoenician alphabet) E. Moabite (Mesha stone, 840 B.C.) F. Aramaic (official language of the Persian Empire used in Gen. 31:47 [2 words]; Jer. 10:11; Dan. 2:4-6; 7:28; Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26 and spoken by Jews in the first century in Palestine) The Hebrew language is called “the lip of Canaan” in Isa. 19:18. It was first called