This is the best technical commentary on the book of Ruth I would recommend. If you read the book of Ruth in the Bible it is only four chapters and yet this commentary is 271 pages long (308 pages if you go by what the publishers say), filled with insights properly extrapolated from God’s Word that is exegetical in nature; that is, it is filled with grammatical and syntactical observation from the Hebrew text along with word study and exploration of a passage’s intertextuality. An aspect of this commentary that makes it unique is the author’s use of discourse analysis. There are many things readers will learn from God’s Word here and I was blown away with what I discover in this book that led me to worship God and Christ more! While I have in the past enjoyed other titles in the Zondervan Old Testament Exegetical Commentary Series this one would be one that I would highly recommend.
The book begins with a very good introduction to the book of Ruth. I enjoyed the author’s discussion of the book’s literary style, canonical position of the book and the theological significance of the book of Ruth. The author believes that Ruth was written in the late seventh century and for me this is rather late. As a result of that position he also believes the author of Ruth is familiar with the prophecy in Micah 5:2-5 concerning the Messiah and is thus excited with the implication of what that means looking back at the story of Ruth and how Elimelech is from Bethlehem. Even if you don’t agree with the author’s view Daniel Block still should be read for his scholarly insight from the book of Ruth.
The commentary does a good job in examining individual text units in the book of Ruth in an organized and helpful manner. Each periscope begins with a summary of the main idea of the passage that states this in a one or two sentence summary. This is followed by a discussion of the literary context in terms of how the passage relates to the whole. Then there’s a translation and exegetical outline followed by structure and literary form survey and then a verse by verse explanation of the text. Finally there’s a discussion about the canonical and practical significance of the section.
One thing that I love about this work is the intertextuality that the author points out between the book of Ruth and other passages in Scripture. For instance both Ruth 3:11 and Proverbs 31:10 uses a Hebrew word for nobility that only appear twice in the canon and thus there is a suggestion that Ruth is the supreme example of nobility described in Proverbs 31.
I am so glad I used this commentary when I taught through the book of Ruth for my church on Sundays. What this book taught me went beyond some of the observations found in other commentaries. I would rank this as my favorite commentary on the book of Ruth. Its my opinion every bible expositor preaching and teaching through the book of Ruth should have this as a resource.
NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Zondervan Academic and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

I used this commentary to study deeper into the book of Ruth for an assignment at the seminary.
I was amazed by the amount of information the author wrote about such a small book. The introduction alone is so rich, it prepares us for a serious study that will come in the following pages.
The author also made sure to register many different points of view from different theologians/groups when it came to interpreting words, statements, context, etc. Talking about words, the author explained in details the meaning of certain key terms, always referring to the hebrew words and terms. Even though I am a seminary student, I still haven't begun studying the original languages (that's scheduled for next year), but I was still able to understand what he was talking about (but I will certainly come back to those texts as I study Hebrew in the future).
It is without a doubt the most complete resource I've ever came in contact with when it comes to a commentary about a book from the Bible.
I intend to purchase other titles from this collection as soon as I can, they will certainly be priceless resources for my studies.