The Book of Job

John Gray, who was Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages in the University of Aberdeen, left at his death in 2000 a complete manuscript of a commentary on "The Book of Job". Rich in text-critical and philological observations, the manuscript has been carefully prepared for the press; it will soon become a standard work for scholars and students of the biblical book, and a fitting tribute to the sound judgment and innovative scholarship of its author. John Gray was noted especially for his books "The Legacy of Canaan" (1957; 2nd edition, 1964), "The Biblical Doctrine of the Reign of God" (1979), and his commentaries, "I and II Kings" (1963; 2nd edition, 1970) and "Joshua, Judges and Ruth" (1967). Gray's commentary on Job, which is prefaced by a lengthy general introduction, is the first volume in a new series of commentaries on the text of the Hebrew Bible. All the volumes will concentrate on the text criticism and philology of the Hebrew text, a feature notably lacking or merely perfunctory in many current biblical commentary series.