About the Book -- The International Critical Commentary (ICC): DEUTERONOMY

Electronic edition of one of the author's finest achievements. Now, as a Vardabook, it contains more then 28,000 live links to JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (Scholar PDF edition). Clicking on any of them brings up Tanakh exactly in the right place in a separate window Hebrew and English translation side-by-side.
After 100 years in print, it continues to be one of the best available commentary on Deuteronomy. This volume remains a font of information not readily available elsewhere, and will retain its value for years to come.

About the Author -- The International Critical Commentary (ICC): DEUTERONOMY

S. R. Driver ---

DRIVER, SAMUEL ROLLES: English Christian Hebraist born at Southampton Oct. 2, 1846, Driver can truly be called in the words of one of the observers "the greatest Bible scholar of his generation."

One of the foremost champions of Biblical criticism, Driver has always taken a conservative view, showing much moderation and sympathy with the orthodox position. As such he was often attacked both from the Left and the Right of the field. His “A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew” (Oxford, 1874; 3d ed., 1892), has remained one of the most complete presentation of the subject.

Driver is the author of numerous critical works dealing with the most important books of Tanakh, and his “Introduction” is still one of the standard English work on the subject. He has edited two small rabbinical works: a commentary on Jeremiah and Ezekiel by Moses ben Sheshet, London, 1871, and one on Proverbs, attributed to Abraham ibn Ezra, Oxford, 1880. Driver has also been a collaborator on the second edition of Smith’s “Bible Dictionary,” on Hasting’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” and on Cheyne and Black’s “Encyclopædia Biblica,” and was coeditor, with Professors Brown and Briggs, of  The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon.

Contents -- The International Critical Commentary (ICC): DEUTERONOMY

CONTENTS.

§ 1. Introductory. Outline of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

§ 2. Relation of Deuteronomy to the preceding Books of the

Pentateuch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

§ 3. Scope and Character of Deuteronomy: its dominant

Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

§ 4. Authorship, Date, and Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiv

§ 5. Language and Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lxxvii

An Excerpt from the Book -- The International Critical Commentary (ICC): DEUTERONOMY

XXIV. 1–4. On divorce. A divorced woman, after contracting a second marriage, is not to be re-married to her

former husband.—The rend. of AV., RV., is not here quite exact; v. 1–3 form the protasis, stating the conditions of the

case contemplated, v. 4 is the apodosis. The law is thus not, properly speaking, a law of divorce: the right of divorce is

assumed, as established by custom (comp. 2219. 29, two cases in which the right is forfeited); but definite legal formalities are

corresponding law in the other Codes of the Pent.; like Dt., H and P take the custom of divorce for granted (Lev. 217. 14

2213 Nu. 3010 (9)); but they contain no legislation respecting it.

The law of Dt. is quoted, and applied didactically, in Jer. 31 (in v. 1b read as RV. marg.).—1–4. Render: “When a man

she is defiled.”—1. Find no favour in his eyes] a common Hebrew expression: Gn. 68 183 1919 &c.—Because he hath

found in her some indecency] the feeling prompting a husband to divorce his wife must rest upon a definite and substantial

ground. The expression rendered “indecency” ( ) has occurred before in 2315 (14); it is lit. the nakedness of a thing, and

signifies most probably some improper or indecent behaviour (G Hучзмпн рсAгмб).

and the clause “if she find no favour in his eyes” (though this, as a matter of fact, is qualified by the following words, “because he finds some indecency

food (емйщбъ ддйшчд емйфа), or if he saw a woman who pleased him better (Gittin, ix. 10: cf. Mt. 193 еh. . . кбфE рIубн бhфЯбн; Jos. Ant. iv. 8. 23 кби'

Gудзрпфпwн бhфЯбт). It may however be doubted how far the latter opinion was literally acted upon. The grounds mentioned in the Mishnah as

in his presence, or brawling in his house (Kethuboth vii. 6). The Karaite Jews limited the grounds of divorce more exclusively to offences against

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