Mayer I. Gruber provides a new commentary on and translation of Hosea. Building upon his work that debunked the myth of sacred prostitution, Gruber now goes on to show that the book of Hosea repeatedly advocates a single standard of marital fidelity for men and women and teaches cheated women to fight back. Gruber employs the latest and most precise findings of lexicography and poetics to solve the difficulties of the text and to determine both how Hosea can be read and what this means. The translation differs from classical and recent renderings in eliminating forms and expressions, which are neither modern English nor ancient Hebrew. Referring to places, events, and material reality of the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, Gruber uncovers the abiding messages of the heretofore obscure book of Hosea. As in previous studies, Gruber employs the insights of behavioral sciences to uncover forgotten meanings of numerous allusions, idioms, similes, and metaphors. Judicious use is made also of textual history, reception history, and personal voice criticism. One of the least biblical books now speaks more clearly to present and future audiences than it did to many previous audiences.

All the Wisdom of the East is a tribute to Professor Eliezer D. Oren, a multi-faceted archaeologist of the Levant and its cultural connections with the Aegean, renowned student of the Negev and Northern Sinai, and founder of the Archaeological Division in the Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva. The book includes an appreciation of the honoree and a list of his numerous publications.Thirty-nine scholars, colleagues and former students from Israel, Europe, the United States of America and New Zealand have contributed original studies in English (22), German (1) and Hebrew (5) to this volume. The spectrum of their papers covers various fields and periods, from pre-history to the Roman Period, from Egypt to the Aegean and the Western Mediterranean, from pottery to art, epigraphy and history. The book thus offers a wealth of knowledge and information of importance to anyone interested in the Ancient Near East.

Rashi's commentary on the Book of Psalms, now in paperback "Gain entrance to the world of Rashi via a wide-ranging introduction and a thorough explication of one of his most important commentaries." -Isaac Gottlieb, Review of Biblical Literature, 2005 In 2004, Mayer Gruber's landmark Rashi's Commentary on Psalms made one of the 11th-century scholar's most important works accessible to a larger audience for the first time. The JPS paperback edition of this exceptional volume includes the complete original Hebrew text and acclaimed linguist Mayer Gruber's contemporary English translation and supercommentary. Fully annotated by Gruber, Rashi's Commentary on Psalms places Rashi, the most influential Hebrew biblical commentator of all time, in the larger context of biblical exegesis. Gruber identifies Rashi's sources, pinpoints the exegetical questions to which Rashi responds, defines the nuances of Rashi's terminology, and guides the reader to use the English translation as a tool to access the original Hebrew text. Gruber's extensive introduction takes a critical look at Rashi and his enduring legacy.

Mayer I. Gruber provides a new commentary on and translation of Hosea. Building upon his work that debunked the myth of sacred prostitution, Gruber now goes on to show that the book of Hosea repeatedly advocates a single standard of marital fidelity for men and women and teaches cheated women to fight back. Gruber employs the latest and most precise findings of lexicography and poetics to solve the difficulties of the text and to determine both how Hosea can be read and what this means. The translation differs from classical and recent renderings in eliminating forms and expressions, which are neither modern English nor ancient Hebrew. Referring to places, events, and material reality of the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, Gruber uncovers the abiding messages of the heretofore obscure book of Hosea. As in previous studies, Gruber employs the insights of behavioral sciences to uncover forgotten meanings of numerous allusions, idioms, similes, and metaphors. Judicious use is made also of textual history, reception history, and personal voice criticism. One of the least biblical books now speaks more clearly to present and future audiences than it did to many previous audiences.

The title, Marbeh Ḥokmah, meaning “increases wisdom,� reflects the fact that Victor Avigdor Hurowitz was a scholar who increased wisdom and who continues to increase the wisdom of scholars throughout the world even after his untimely death at the age of 64. The book was edited by five of Professor Hurowitz’s colleagues: Profs. Shamir Yona and Mayer I. Gruber of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Edward L. Greenstein of Bar-Ilan University, Peter Machinist of Harvard University, and Shalom M. Paul of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The two-volume collection contains 49 groundbreaking essays written by 53 distinguished authors from various institutions of higher learning in Israel and around the world. The authors include Victor’s teachers, colleagues, and students, and the essays deal with a great variety of subjects. The breadth of subject matter featured in Marbeh Ḥokmah is a most appropriate tribute to Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, whose published scholarship encompassed a wide variety of fields of interest pertaining to the study of the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East: Wisdom Literature, Psalmody, prophecy and prophets, the priesthood, eschatology, historiography, ancient inscriptions, medieval Hebrew biblical exegesis, religious rites, building and architecture, temples, the art of warfare, Semitic philology, Sumerian proverbs, epigraphy, rhetoric and stylistics, poetry, lamentations, the interconnections between Hebrew Scripture and the ancient Near East, the cultures of ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia, innerbiblical parallels, and many other subjects.