Julia M. O'Brien is Paul H. and Grace L. Stern Professor of Old Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary, where she has taught since 1997. She received her B.A. in religion from Wake Forest University, her M. Div. from Duke Divinity School and her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Duke University. Her areas of study included the history and archaeology of the Old Testament, as well as Judaism and Literary Criticism. She is the author of a commentary on Nahum (2001) and a commentary on Nahum through Malachi in the Abingdon Old Testament Commentary series (2004). She writes regularly for Bible dictionaries, commentaries, and journals.