R. E. Clements

This is a short commentary on Deuteronomy written by a noted scholar in the area. It is targetted at preachers rather than scholars, and so lacks the features of a scholarly work - no referencing and just the briefest of bibliographies at the beginning. Nevertheless it draws on a great deal of scholarship.

Clements locates the composition of Deuteronomy in the Exilic period, and hence argues that the laws, and in particular the blessings and curses need to be seen in the context of Israel's coming to terms with the disaster of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile.

Clements does not gloss over some of the dificulties of the text - such as the harshness of some of the punishments and the seemingly horendous instructions surrounding warfare, but tries to discover what the underlying purpose of these texts is.

His comments for preachers are generally brief but insightful.

Overall this is a very useful little book to have on the shelf. My only real quibble is the lack of refernces when Clements refers to scholarly debates… (mere)