Shoftim (Judges: Introduction and Commentary) (review)

Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 283 Reviews Wevers' notes indispensable when working on LXX Exodus and also while preparing the Leviticus volume for the New English Translation of the Septuagint. What I value particularly about his approach is that he allows for the possibility that variant readings of the LXX are ascribable to the fact that the LXX is a Jewish exegetical document. In fact, one hardly picks up any volume of his which does not refer in one way or another to Z. Frankel and/or L. Prijs, two scholars who in the previous century carefully documented the relationship between the Septuagint and haIakhic literature. Dirk L Buchner University of Durban-Westville 4000 Durban, South Africa dbuchner@pixie.udw.ac.za SHOFTIM (JUDGES: INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY). By Yairah Amit. Mikra LeYisra'eVA Bible Commentary for Israel. pp. xiv + 337. Tel Aviv/Jerusalem: Am OvedlMagnes Press, 1999. Cloth, $17.78. Let me begin my review of Yairah Amit's Judges volume in the Mikra LeYisra'el commentary series by making an admission which, rumor says, more of my fellow reviewers could make than do: I have not read this book-not, at any rate, from cover to cover. I make this admission with a clear conscience because of the hybrid nature of the commentary form, part introductory material, part reference work. What I have done, therefore , is to read the book's introduction and to use the rest of the book as its owners and borrowers will do, by consulting the commentary, the fifteen excurses, and the eight indexes (to biblical references, extra-biblical literature , textual witnesses, emendations, structuraVredactional terms, religious terms, grammatical terms, and geographical names). My purpose was to get a sense of how useful the volume will be for me-and hence, I hope. for the typical reader of Hebrew Studies. Since I believe this is the first review of a volume of Mikra LeYisra'el in Hebrew Studies. let me take a moment to present the series. It is described in the preface provided by the general editors, Shmuel Ahituv and (originally) Moshe Greenberg, as "modern" and "professional," and on the series title page and the cover of the book as "scientific," that is, grounded in intellectual effort rather than religious belief. But like its American cousins in the Jewish Publication Society commentary series. it sees itself as Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 284 Reviews very much indebted to traditional Jewish exegesis. Hence Amit's commentary moves easily in this realm, from Targum through midrash to the medievals and beyond. She can cite Rashi and Rashbam as readily as Boling and Burney; given the nature of a Hebrew-reading audience, more so. Thus on the odd use of the Hiphil of »" in Judg 8:16, she quotes David Kimhi's suggestion that it might be interpreted using the standard meaning of the word, citing Jer 16:21 in support; interprets Targum Jonathan as implying an original »"'; and ends by suggesting that the reading of the Septuagint, retroverted to IZM", is the correct one, based on the use of the same verb in v. 7. This is the general plan of the commentary: to treat both the current form of the text and the explanations provided for it in Jewish tradition seriously and respectfully, but to let a contemporary scholarly sensibility be the fmal arbiter. For this reader, it's a satisfying mix. AmiCs approach to Judges, as her introduction indicates, is centered on her understanding of the central core of the book (3:7-16:31) as carefully edited to demonstrate a cycle of sin, punishment, prayer, salvation, and rest repeated seven times under a sequence of ruling "judges." The third "judge" in the sequence is listed in her chart (5) as "Deborah and Barak," an entry that gains more significance when one reads in her commentary to Judges 4 and her excursus on the relationship between Judges 4 and 5 that the identity of the "savior" is deliberately left unsettled (Yael also enters into the picture) so that the reader will understand that God is the real savior. According to her reading, most of the Deuteronomistic terminology in the book is limited to the introduction (2:6...