One of my favorite Old Testament commentaries is Robert L. Hubbard, Jr.'s work, The Book of Ruth. It is a delightful exploration into the depth of that short book, pulling out all sorts of beautiful internal principles, such as the concept of hesed and the Israelite view of immigrants. (See my review of that book here.) Because of that book I have bought other commentaries in The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT) sequence. I have also tended to grab anything written by Hubbard (as I do anything written by Derek Kidner or Robert Alter.)
The book of 1 & 2 Kings, unlike the book of Ruth, is quite lengthy, totaling 47 chapters to Ruth's four. And the goals of the author(s) of 1 & 2 Kings differed from the author of Ruth. So I should not be too surprised that the commentary, First and Second Kings, by Robert L. Hubbard, is also quite different from Hubbard's commentary on Ruth. In his commentary on Ruth, Hubbard takes 285 pages to cover the four chapters, 85 verses of Ruth. In his commentary on 1 & 2 Kings, Hubbard 239 pages to cover 47 chapters, 1536 verses. Obviously the material cannot be covered with the depth Hubbard devotes to Ruth. Ultimately the book of Ruth is a romance, a romance between Ruth and Boaz (aided adroitly by Naomi), and also a romance between YHWH, the people of Bethlehem, and the young foreigner. The scroll of Kings is a sad description of divorce, of a divorce between YHWH and His people, and a divorce between the tribes of Israel.
For all of these reasons, I was disappointed in Hubbard's book. It is really quite good, I see now, but my expectations were too high.
Hubbard sets up a nice introduction to the scroll of Kings, describing the viewpoint, possible authors (is Jeremiah the author?), the viewpoint (goal) of the author and the chronology. Hubbard's approach is an orthodox one, viewing the work as inspired by God, with a specific purpose for its inclusion in Scripture. (The book is published by Moody Press.) He stresses the Davidic/Messianic themes of 1 & 2 Kings, as the book records the good and bad (mostly bad!) descendants of David on the throne of Judah. Hubbard points out the continuing theme of God's judgment of the two kingdoms as they fail to follow the Mosaic Covenant. Hubbard also notes book's emphasis on the role of prophets (we see Elijah, Elisha and even, at several points, a school of prophets.)
Hubbard also attempts to keep up with all the computations required in accurately dating the kingdoms against the internal dates recorded, where one king's accession is dated in terms of the year of reign of the opposite kingdom. I made no attempt to keep up with the simple mathematics required. (I am a mathematician, but I am also retired!)
A pet peeve of mine with any commentary is that I want to read the scripture text within the commentary. I am too lazy to have a Bible app (or online page) handy while I read the commentary. This short book does not include the text of 1 & 2 Kings, obviously for reasons of space. I understand the issues of space, but still I grumble.
Overall the book is relatively thorough, professional and easily readible. On my goodreads.com home page I give it a rating of four stars out of five.
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