Written for serious Bible students—pastors, Sunday School teachers, seminary students, missionaries, counselors, spiritual directors, and other “agents of the Creator”—this innovative commentary was conceived to identify “the author’s intended meaning as expressed in the biblical text.” Combining a transparent hermeneutical methodology with a “canonical-linguistic” theological reading of these two books of Old Testament Wisdom, Jim Reitman explores much of the territory left uncharted by available verse-by-verse exegetical treatments.
Dr. Reitman introduces and concludes the commentary with transparent first person accounts of his own trials, disillusionment, and experience in medical ethics and military medicine that will help the reader appreciate how acutely relevant these two books are to the lives of 21st Century Christians. The prominent themes—self-sufficiency, adversity, disillusionment, the call to brokenness, mourning, the “fear of God,” and accepting our portion from God as chosen agents of his purposes—all readily transfer to our contemporary context.
What leaders are saying about this book
Reaching into his own experience and reflecting deeply on the theological questions of the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, Jim Reitman pursues the profound issues of pain and suffering as both victim (Job) and oppressor (Ecclesiastes). Whether as a guide for further study of these books or as a counterpoint to various traditional and postmodern understandings, the reader will be challenged and encouraged to find new significance to a Christian theology of suffering at a time when this message desperately needs to be told. —Richard S. Hess
Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages Denver Seminary
Reitman’s excellent expostion of the books of Job and Ecclesiastes shows how unjust suffering and self-motivated ambitious schemes result in frustration and confusion, and how only the fear of God can resolve disillusionment. Here is a remarkably perceptive study of two often-neglected wisdom books whose messages are desperately needed today. Any student of these two books will be spiritually enriched by this exposition.
—Roy B. Zuck, ThD
Editor, Bibliotheca Sacra, and Professor Emeritus in Bible Exposition
Dallas Theological Seminary
I especially appreciate Dr. Reitman’s self-conscious and meticulous hermeneutical rigor….He explains his rationale for the format that he employs in the commentary—one that is both idiosyncratic and effective. In the commentary’s organization, his careful and analytical mind excels….Would that all commentaries were so rigorous. And would that all were so satisfying in their conclusions. Beyond his attention to methodological precision, Reitman’s conclusions ring true to life—always the test of a commentary’s effectiveness.
—William W. Klein, PhD
Chair, Division of Biblical Studies
Denver Seminar
James S. 
Reitman (B.A., Pomona College; M.D., Washington University, St. Louis; M.A., Dallas Theological Seminary; Fellowship in Biomedical Ethics, University of Virginia; and D. Min. student, Denver Seminary) retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2006 as a specialist in Internal Medicine, having served as Chief Consultant in Medical Ethics from 1995-1997. He is Adjunct Professor in Spiritual Formation and Teaching Assistant in hermeneutics at Denver Seminary.
