Commentary on Joshua, Judges and Samuel, Isaac Abrabanel, Pesaro: Gershom Soncino, 1511

186 leaves (11 5/8 x 8¼ in.; 295 x 210 mm). collation: 1^{5, 2-94, 103, 11-454, 466; lacking the notoriously scarce half title, and a blank in quire 10; quires 20, 22-23 misbound;  this copy without the book of Kings. Woodcut title border, title mended in margins affecting a few lines of text and half of the border, top margins cut short affecting text or headlines, marginal mends in several places, tears and dampstains, some entering text, some small wormtracks, marginal spotting. Nineteenth-century half calf and black cloth, gold-stamped title and paper labels on spine; joints and edges worn, signs of damp.}

Vinograd, Pesaro 29; Mehlman 64

186 leaves (11 5/8 x 8¼ in.; 295 x 210 mm). collation: 15, 2-94, 103, 11-454, 466; lacking the notoriously scarce half title, and a blank in quire 10; quires 20, 22-23 misbound; this copy without the book of Kings. Woodcut title border, title mended in margins affecting a few lines of text and half of the border, top margins cut short affecting text or headlines, marginal mends in several places, tears and dampstains, some entering text, some small wormtracks, marginal spotting. Nineteenth-century half calf and black cloth, gold-stamped title and paper labels on spine; joints and edges worn, signs of damp.
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The preface to this work includes Abrabanel's account of his life in Spain up to and including the Expulsion and its aftermath. In the commentary, which appears alongside the biblical text, Abrabanel endeavors to explain the general content of the Bible, its principles, views and moral teachingsas opposed to providing the literal meanings of the words and passages. Primarily a philosophical, theological, ethical and to some extent historical commentary, his method as an exegete is entirely novel, prefacing each section of each book with a number of questions and then interpreting that section in such a manner as to gradually resolve them. Abrabanel divided each book according to his own exegetical program, dispensing with more traditional chapter divisions. Thus, in the Book of Joshua he discerns sixteen divisions instead of twenty-four chapters; in The Book of Judges, twelve instead of twenty-one and in both Books of Samuel, which he treats as one, twenty-five instead of fifty-five traditional divisions.

His greatest contribution to the exegesis of the Former and Latter Prophets are his introductions. In his general introduction to the Former Prophets, he discusses the classification of the books of the Canon.  Abrabanel is also practically the first Jewish commentator to devote attention to the question of Biblical chronology in the era of the Judges and through the period of the division of the Kingdom. His work contributed greatly to solutions provided by subsequent commentators, both Jewish and Christian.