The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

General Editor for the Old Testament and Apocrypha:—

A. F. KIRKPATRICK, D.D.

Dean of Ely

The

Book Of Exodus

In the Revised Version

With Introduction and Notes

by

The Rev. S. R. DRIVER, D.D.

regius professor of hebrew, and canon of christ church, oxford,

hon. d.litt. cambridge and dublin, hon. d.d. glasgow

and aberdeen,

fellow of the british academy,

corresponding member of the royal prussian academy

of sciences.

Cambridge:

at the University Press

1911

Preface

by the

General Editor for the Old Testament

The present General Editor for the Old Testament in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges desires to say that, in accordance with the policy of his predecessor the Bishop of Worcester, he does not hold himself responsible for the particular interpretations adopted or for the opinions expressed by the editors of the several Books, nor has he endeavoured to bring them into agreement with one another. It is inevitable that there should be differences of opinion in regard to many questions of criticism and interpretation, and it seems best that these differences should find free expression in different volumes. He has endeavoured to secure, as far as possible, that the general scope and character of the series should be observed, and that views which have a reasonable claim to consideration should not be ignored, but he has felt it best that the final responsibility should, in general, rest with the individual contributors.

A. F. KIRKPATRICK.

Preface

THE preparation of the present commentary has occupied longer time than I expected. The Book of Exodus either deals with, or touches on, many different subjects, upon most of which much has been written, and which frequently raise difficult and complex problems. Had not able guides cleared and smoothed the way, I should have shrunk from the task imposed upon me by the General Editor. Naturally, I had constantly beside me the masterly commentary of Dillmann. Dillmann was a learned and accomplished scholar, of critical yet sober judgement, and gifted, as the present Dean of Canterbury has justly observed, with ‘strong sense and historical capacity.’ On historical questions, especially, I have been glad to have the benefit of Dillmann’s judgement; and I have generally in such cases allowed the reader to know what Dillmann’s conclusions were. Dillmann’s Commentary on Exodus and Leviticus appeared, however, in 1880; and naturally it needs now to be supplemented, in some respects, by more recent works. Among these I must name in particular the very thorough and ably written commentary of Bäntsch (1903). Bäntsch’s death, in 1910, at a comparatively early age, was a great loss to Biblical science. On special questions,—such as Egyptian history, the route of the Exodus, the ancient limits of the Isthmus of Suez, the characteristics of the Sinaitic Peninsula,—and on frequent details in the exegesis, there were naturally many other authorities whom I had to consult: ...