Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (New International Biblical Commentary)

Murphy, on Proverbs, pays particular attention to parallelism in the book of Proverbs. This “collection of collections” was formed over many centuries and reflects generations of wisdom poems and sayings, symbolism, theology, and anthropology. Huwiler, on Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, enhances the reader’s appreciation through her exposition of the themes and images in two biblical books devoted to such human exploration and experience.

"Murphy and Huwiler's lively commentaries on the NIV text bring the wisdom tradition into critical focus for questions of faith. Armed with the insights of biblical scholarship, they situate their texts within the thought world of the Hebrew Bible, but with an eye to a modern reader's concerns about meaning, coherence, and authority. Together, they produce a work that is readable and useful for the general reader and is a real treat for those believers who find most academic studies of the Bible dry and daunting."
—Carole R. Fontaine, professor of Hebrew Scriptures, Andover Newton Theological School