Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books (The IVP Bible Dictionary Series)

This book is a great resource. Very deep info. It is a wealth of scholarly information and covers every topic. Amazon has the best price on these books with free shipping. What more could anyone ask for. Aslo quick service. Amazon also ships quickly to APO/FPO boxes and is still free! Awesome.

a part of building references so I do not have travel to public/private libraries, can use travel time studying/writing

Great book

Kindle version makes using this as a reference rather tedious. Indexing could be dramatically improved to improve speed when researching subjects. The writing is very academic.

good addition to my library

Great series. Fully met my expectations.

100% satisfied!

This is not the typical book on Kindle and was an absolute waste of money. The word search is practically useless because the page #'s are not referenced by their # in the Kindle, but rather by the hard-cover book. Meaning, if I needed to find the commentary on "Kings, Book of," I could do a word search on the same, and it would provide every reference for "Kings, Book of." If it tells me that it's on page 473, that reference is to the hardcover book - not the Kindle. Instead, the Kindle page # would be something like 25,682.

The IVP (Inter-Varsity Press) Dictionary of the Old Testament is actually several individual volumes which combine to make one (massive!) dictionary resource. It comprises:*  DOT Pentateuch  [the first five books of the Bible]* DOT Historical Books [from Joshua to Nehemiah]*  DOT Wisdom, Poetry & Writings  [Psalms, Ecclesiastes, etc.)(I expect there is a DOT Prophetic Books [Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.] planned for the near future, though I couldn't find any mention of one on the IVP website.)While this makes them expensive over all, the quality and quantity of scholarship they make available makes it worthy investment. I have bought the DOT Pentateuch and this DOT Historical Books in the last couple of years and hope to get them all eventually.Even though I emphasise that this is a series of dictionaries, each individual volume still represents a complete and comprehensive unit. A vast array of topics are covered, usually in fairly significant (but digestible) detail. The first, for instance, is `Agriculture and Animal Husbandry' which spans and improbable twenty pages (three-and-a-half of which are bibliography!). This first article is clearly subdivided into four further sections, the last section being a `Conclusion' bringing everything together. In this case:`Throughout the entire period depicted in the Historical Books of the OT there exists a recognisable tension between the true worship of Yahweh... and the idolatrous Baal worship prevalent in Syria-Palestine...' (p17)`Agriculture and animal husbandry played a central role in Israelite society and religion. After all, it was Yahweh who had given the land... to his chosen people Israel... [and who] supplied the precipitation and sun necessary to raise crops and maintain herds...' (p16)(Compare the `Agriculture' article in my  DOT Pentateuch  review on Amazon.)The uniformly clear and comfortable reading format and overall aesthetic layout also make them a single reference work. There is a continuity of articles too - at least in the absence of repetition. For instance, of the two volumes I own, the entry for `Angel of the Lord' (directing you to `Theophany', from the Greek for `god' and `to appear') only appears in the Pentateuch volume. It's easy to see this as an error of omission if you only own the Historical Books volume, but I imagine each volume would be larger and even more expensive if articles were duplicated. (Perhaps the omission of `Spirit' or `Holy Spirit', etc. from both volumes would be covered in the Wisdom or (potential) Prophetic Books volumes?)The only real criticism I have is that digital media would be more convenient in many cases. While I have always preferred books as opposed to disks (and vinyl as opposed to CDs), still the digital media so much cheaper and easier to use. I have owned  Essential IVP Reference Collection CD-ROM  (mine is version 2) for years but could never have afforded all the superb New Testament reference books which it contains. I hope that IVP will have an Essential Collection for the Old Testament too, one day.In the mean time, this is a hugely expensive series but worth every penny which I always think of as an investment, not an expense. I suppose you could say, `you get what you pay for' and paying for this title - or series - gets you supreme quality: highly recommended.EDIT:I note that the Logos Bible Software website now lists the Pentateuch and Historical Books dictionaries as 'under developement'. So someone is digitising them - or two of them, at least. ('Pre-Publication' price is lower, if you're quick...) DOT PentateuchDOT Wisdom, Poetry & WritingsDOT PentateuchEssential IVP Reference Collection CD-ROM

Excellent book

Bon livre à lire!!!

Awesome!