This book is the first comprehensive treatment and analysis of the pheno-menon of textual interpretation in ancient Israel. It is shown that the Old Testament is the repository of and witness to a rich tradition of exegesis considerably prior to the development of biblical interpretation in early classical Judaism and in the earli-est Christian communities. The subject-matter is explored under four major cate-gories: (1) scribal exegesis (lexical, philo-logical, and euphemistic interpretations); (2) legal exegesis (additions, analogies, etc., in the legal corpora); (3) aggadic exegesis (theological, homiletical, and his-toriographical interpretations); (4) manto-logical exegesis (omens, dreams, and oracles). Particular attention is paid to the types and techniques of exegesis within the Old Testament and to the continuity of this exegetical tradition in later hermeneutical writings. In the end it emerges that the Hebrew Bible is not only the foundation document for the exegetical culture of Judaism and Christianity but is an exe-getical corpus in its own right. --cover flap.