The Open Your Bible Commentary was written to encourage daily Bible study. Each reading is short, but the content is rich with careful explanation, devotional warmth, and practical relevance. Its four great strengths are that it is accessible, digestible, dependable, and practical.

In this introduction to the first five books of the Old Testament, Victor Hamilton moves chapter by chapter--rather than verse by verse--through the Pentateuch, examining the content, structure, and theology. Each chapter deals with a major thematic unit of the Pentateuch, and Hamilton provides useful commentary on overarching themes and connections between Old Testament texts. This second edition has been substantially revised and updated. The first edition sold over sixty thousand copies.

From the tumbling walls of Jericho to a Jewish girl who became the queen of Persia, the historical books of the Bible are intriguing and unquestionably fascinating. In this comprehensive introduction, veteran Old Testament professor Victor Hamilton demonstrates the significance of the messages contained in these biblical books by carefully examining content, structure, and theology. He details the events and implications of each book chapter by chapter, providing useful commentary on overarching themes and the connections and parallels between Old Testament texts. Now in paper.

The books of Samuel focus on the lives of three men: Samuel, Saul, and David. They are first seen as individuals rising in their respective careers. As time passes, their lives more frequently interact and become interwined with each other. J. Carl Laney covers these two books section by section, often pausing to clear up a difficult passage that would mean trouble to the reader. This volume is complete with many maps that prove to be an invaluable aid to the reader in helping him to plot out where the action of a particular chapter is taking place. Dr. Laney helps the reader to understand the anguish and agony David experienced as a result of the division of his household and the rebellion of his son Absalom. We can see how Saul met his ultimate downfall as king because of his reliance upon outside sources for guidance instead of implicitly trusting in the Lord. One also sees the godly Samuel who, nevertheless, was unable to keep his own household in order. Contemporary lessons are plentiful in these two Bible books and available to those who take the time to study their truths.

October 3, 1989. Seventy-nine-year-old wealthy Jewish widow Esther Kellerman lives in a small suburb outside of Columbus, Ohio. Esther thinks she has a pretty good life. She plays bridge, reads for her book club, and routinely drives her Cadillac DeVille into the mailboxes of her neighbors. Her latest mailbox mishap leads her to the doorstep of some mysterious new residents of her neighborhood. As she introduces herself to Sarah, the elderly woman who answers the door, Esther soon realizes that there's something wrong with her. Eighty-nine-year-old Muriel Schwartz has also met the new neighbor Sarah, along with Sarah's son David and daughter-in-law Dianne. David and Dianne ask Muriel to look in on Sarah for a couple of hours each day while they're at work, and because Muriel is having financial troubles and needs the money, she agrees to help out. When Esther hears of this plan, she offers to lend a hand. Eighty-five-year-old Rosalie Sherman, Esther's widowed sister-in-law, thinks that both Esther and Muriel have lost their minds and wants no part in what she sees as a ridiculous care-giving arrangement doomed to fail. Rosalie never shies away from saying what she thinks, but Esther is taken aback at Rosalie's emphatic refusal to help out with Sarah. With a touch of humor and a lot of heartfelt warmth, The Enlightenment of Esther paints a vivid portrait of the lives of Esther and her contemporaries, all in their seventies and eighties, and how their relationships intersect and intertwine in ways even Esther couldn't have predicted. But if anyone can solve this mystery of just exactly who Sarah, David, and Dianne are, Esther Kellerman can!

The story begins on the Konkan coast in the nineteenth century, when Bathseba, a woman of great moral courage, steers her family through the odds in the absence of her husband. The family distinguishes itself when her great-grandson David earns renown as a doctor in Ahmedabad. Displaying a remarkably different kind of empathy, his exuberant son Joshua raises lions, panthers and crocodiles as pets, and later founds a zoo. Things come full circle when Joshua's daughter Esther embarks on a journey to Israel in search of her roots, amidst the confusion of a failed marriage and the turmoil in her place of birth, Ahmedabad. Seamlessly blending storytelling, history and memoir, Book of Esther shines fresh light on the Jewish experience in India and becomes an affecting tale about love, home and belonging.