Michael V. Fox and Commentaries on Proverbs

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The Book of Proverbs (and wisdom literature in general) has been on my mind lately. Nijay Gupta had a guest post on Commentaries on Proverbs by Paul Overland in his substack series “Experts Recommend OT Commentaries” early in January. And then a couple days later I heard the sad news of the passing of Hebrew Bible scholar Michael V. Fox.

Fox was an expert on the wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible (among other things), publishing many works, including his second-to-none two volume commentary on the Book of Proverbs in the Yale Anchor Series. I recall fondly a special dinner in New Orleans with Michael organized by John Hobbins at the publication of the second volume in 2009.

  • Fox, Michael V. Proverbs 1-9: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Yale Anchor Bible. Doubleday, 2000. Buy from Amazon.ca | Amazon.com
  • Fox, Michael V. Proverbs 10-31: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Yale Anchor Bible. Doubleday, 2009. Buy from Amazon.ca | Amazon.com

Besides his work on Proverbs, I absolutely loved his A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up: A Rereading of Ecclesiastes (Eerdmans, 1999; Buy from Amazon.ca | Amazon.com) and used it as a textbook when I taught a special seminar on Ecclesiastes. In addition, I also quote liked his Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther (Eerdmans, 2001; Buy from Amazon.ca | Amazon.com). He will be missed. May his memory be for blessing.

(Hearing of his passing also prompted me to update and work on my page on the Book of Proverbs in my Old Testament Commentary Survey. While I am still playing around with the formatting, take a look if you are interested.)

One thought on “Michael V. Fox and Commentaries on Proverbs”

  1. Tyler, thanks for your work on this. For decades Bruce Waltke has been my inspiration to study and teach Proverbs — ever since, decades ago I listened to a long series of his lectures on cassette tapes available free from Believers Chapel, Dallas. Later came purchase of his substantial two volumes, singularly the best on the book. Also worthy of note is Allen Ross, in the Expositors Bible series (published 2008) available on Kindle for a mere 7.95 — great scholar with pastoral heart (my Hebrew exegesis prof at DTS for Genesis, Psalms and Proverbs). I recommend him on all three books.

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