A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming

The authors knowledge and poetic insight into the spiritual and psychological aspects of the message and life of Jeremiah were very valuable to me. The book gave me a greater understanding of the larger picture of Jeremiah's contribution to the world and the House of Israel specifically. The content was not dry, but very engaging.

Some of the sections are very interesting. A lot of speculation and some genuine holes. There are other commentaries which are better.

Bruggeman is a bit too liberal for my theological tastes but he is well worth the read. He has fresh insights and a way with words that makes the text come alive. It is his different viewpoint and style that makes a lot of the Old Testament come alive for me and enriches my Christian growth. This commentary has been rewarding when I have had opportunity to use it. He makes the richness accessible to those who haven't had his kind of training. I believe you will be rewarded regardless of your theological outlook.

I have always enjoyed Brueggemann's work, but this one is a disappointment. He focuses on the details, not paying much attention to the larger whole, which leaves the reader confused and wondering what Jeremiah is all about. I also think he makes too much of "God's radical sovereignty," too often failing to note that Jeremiah is a compendium of voices, not all of which agree.

A well-wrought and thoughtful commentary on Jeremiah, more focused on larger themes and movements in particular pericopes than on word-by-word or verse-by-verse exploration. If a pastor or seminarian were looking to own one commentary on Jeremiah, it would be this one.

A Commentary on Jeremiah was as expected. I am pleased with the book and the service.

Walter Brueggemann's work will always provide fresh insight and give you a solid understanding of Old Testament texts. Along with Raymond Brown from the Roman Catholic side, Brueggemann is the authority. This book starts out with an overview of the scholarship and background of Jeremiah, and then provides commentary on each chapter. Very useful for preachers and for Bible Study leaders-- accessible, personable, and clearly written.

Really excellent and relatively easy to read for those who might not have a formal background in Scriptural Studies

Walter Brueggemann's `A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile & Homecoming' is an excellent work; large, scholarly, (reasonably) modern and conservative while still being a comfortable enough read.Amazon's `Search Inside' feature will reveal how Brueggemann divides his work (and the `other' front cover), but since Jeremiah is such a complicated book of the Bible, the divisions are not universally followed: For instance, J. A. Thompson's huge commentary (part of the New International Commentary series) sees Jer. 2.1-25:38 as one massive section, but Bruggemann divides the same text into eight (much more manageable) sections.Brueggemann strikes a useful balance between the Hebrew and historical technicalities and a more superficial offering. And since it's fairly up-to-date compared to other great Jeremiah commentaries (e.g. Thompson/Holladay), it benefits from them all whilst using more modern theological viewpoints. Thus, the commentary notes that many editorial processes helped develop the book of Jeremiah into its final form, but it also recognises that this final form is `as it is supposed to be' (so to speak).On the whole, then, I like Brueggemann's commentary. Criticisms would be a) the repetition and b) the occasionally `flowery' articulation:a) The repetition is part-and-parcel of the job of commentating on this biblical work. Jeremiah says the same thing (sometimes verbatim) repeatedly. Indeed, his prophetic ministry is said to have lasted forty years and the basic message never changed so some repetition is inevitable. Brueggemann emphasises that `there will be a temptation in interpretation to summarise and reduce, and one must have patience to stay with the poetic nuance and detail' (p32). How right he is! Even so, I began to feel that he over-stretched the point on several occasions: `See previous' might have been warranted after all...b) His frequently describing the text as `subversive', `daring' or `destabilising', and even more frequent use of exclamation marks, makes the commentary seem a little `flowery' sometimes. Perhaps Brueggemann is struggling to emphasise the impact of the text because much of Jeremiah `comes close to the edge of language, beyond which nothing dare be uttered' (p450).In the end, however, Brueggemann's apparent aim of offering a scholarly interpretation while avoiding `dense academic' complexity is successful. That said, the biblical book of Jeremiah, and so this commentary also, require a huge effort of will to read in their entirety. I persevered with both because, as an unintentional pessimist, I felt I needed to understand `God at his worst' (so to speak). The biblical book of Jeremiah is hard - it's supposed to be - but Brueggemann's commentary is helping me understand the love, and extraordinary pain, of God which the prophet describes.

Excelente libro sobre el Profeta Jeremías. No se puede encontrar en Español pero merece la pena leerlo en Inglés original