Song of Songs: A Commentary

by J. Cheryl Exum

Book Overview

This original commentary foregrounds at every turn the poetic genius of the Song of Songs, one of the most elusive texts of the Hebrew Bible. J. Cheryl Exum locates that genius in the way the Song not only tells but shows its readers that love is strong as death, thereby immortalizing love, as well as in the way the poet explores the nature of love by a mature sensitivity to how being in love is different for the woman and the man. Many long-standing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664238416
• ISBN13: 9780664238414
• Release Date: May 2011
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

One of the best commentaries on Song of Songs available

I will be offering a longer review of Exum's Song of Songs elsewhere in a scholarly journal (I myself have published on the Song of Songs and teach it regularly in my position at Union Theological Seminary in New York). Nevertheless, in anticipation of that and in response to another review posted, I would just say that this is one of the best commentaries on Song of Songs available now. To be sure, others have offered worthy and provacative theses r.e. female authorship, etc. What Exum provides is exquisite attention to the language of the Song. Where past commentaries tried to nail down the Song to just one meaning, Exum offers here a commentary that consciously and explicitly explores alternatives. That may be frustrating to some who expected a bold single reading, but it is more true to the Song of Song's multiple meanings. In years to come there is a good chance that Exum's commentary on this multivalent book will be seen as a predecessor to a new, more useful form of the commentary genre. This commentary is recommended for anyone working on the Song of Songs, for courses on Song of Songs, and for those who just want an excellent companion as they work through the book -- there are no better choices.