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Paperback - 283 pp
ISBN 0-664-25239-7
Westminster/John Knox Press

Editorial Comments

Westermann has provided a comprehensive and innovative assessment of a hitherto unappreciated and often misunderstood portion of the prophetic canon.  The volume is significant in a number of ways.  First, Westermann demonstrates that these oracles belong to and make up a coherent tradition, one that inheres in the earliest stages of Israel's experience.  Second, these oracles are not just formless expressions of hope; they occur in four distinct forms, the most prominent of which may be found in exilic prophetic literature.  Third, Westermann has shown that many of these oracles of salvation were forged in the crucible of exilic experience and that they remained malleable - and hence occurred in diverse forms - in postexilic religious life.  Fourth, and most important, he has challenged decisively the notion that Israel's prophets pronounced only a message of judgment and doom.  The proclamation of deliverance and blessing also belongs to the message of the prophets.

David L. Petersen
Professor of Old Testament
Iliff School of Theology, Denver

Together with Westermann's Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech this volume provides the most comprehensive form critical and thematic interpretation of prophetic sayings in English.

Patrick D. Miller
Professor of Old Testament Theology
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, New Jersey

Professor Westermann is a master of classical form critical method employed for theological purposes.  In this book, he lives up to this reputation in offering a clear and systematic analysis of Old Testament oracles of salvation - the early forms in their original life settings and how these typical utterances developed as historical and social circumstances changes.

Burke O. Long
Department of Religion
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, Maine

Writing in the classical tradition of critical biblical exposition, Westermann guides the reader from a consideration of the formal features of prophetic speech to the theological substance of these sayings, involving such important biblical concepts as redemption, liberation, peace, and the messianic hope.

Joseph Blenkinsopp
John A. O'Brien Professor, Biblical Studies
University of Notre Dame, Indiana

This examination 'serves to uncover the tensions between conditional and unconditional assurances and enables the reader to set the Old Testament hope in its historical context.'

Ronald E. Clements
Professor of Old Testament Studies
King's College
University of London