The Books of

JOEL, OBADIAH,
JONAH and MICAH

Leslie C. Allen

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 1976 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49503

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Allen, Leslie C.

The books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah.

(The New international commentary on the Old Testament)

Bibliography: p. 14

1. Bible. O.T. Minor prophets—Commentaries.

I. Bible. O.T. Minor Prophets. English. Selections. 1976.

II. Title. III. Series.

BS1560.A65 224’.9 77–22484

ISBN 0-8028-2531-1

TO JEREMY, GOD’S GIFT OF A SON

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

On March 19th, 1970, I was privileged to receive an invitation from Professor R. K. Harrison to produce a volume on Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah for the New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Since then I have lived as much as possible with these books and learned to appreciate their reflection of their original environment and impact upon it, and also their relevance for the modern Christian.

The contributor to such a series as this has the difficult, not to say desperate, task of interpreting these ancient writings for the scholar and the Christian pastor and layman. He must pay due regard to “what it meant” and “what it means,” to use Stendahl’s classic formulation. Aiding in the latter concern, on the other side of my desk has been sitting an imaginary traditional Christian, who knows and values his New Testament, but is very hazy about the Minor Prophets and secretly doubtful as to their worth. Sometimes he has been a little bored with my emphasis on the original setting and other antiquarian matters, and I have had to tell him to be patient and to accept the necessity of hard study if these books are to display their treasures to him.

These treasures have come to us in earthen vessels, the earthen vessels of cultural orientation and expression, of ancient speech-forms and poetic and literary conventions, such as meter and structure. Our books were not produced in a vacuum nor dropped from heaven this morning. Any passage within them must be understood in the light of its literary and historical contexts. It needs to be evaluated against the general background of the OT, and then placed in a larger setting still, the total revelation that has reached its climax in the New Testament, in order to trace the recurrence and development of theological patterns. There is no shortcut from our ancient books to this year of grace: these concentric circles have to be carefully constructed if an authentic interpretation of the text is to be achieved.

Professor H. Butterfield once wrote of the need for the historian to have imaginative sympathy with the historical characters he studies. The biblical expositor has a similar need. When all possible historical and literary light has been shed upon the text there remains a gap which can be spanned only by a leap back, by an attempt to relive the human emotions expressed ...