Biblical interpretation gradually evolved its own rules and methods. Two sets of rules were particularly respected, the seven rules (or middoth) of Hillel, and the extension of them in the thirteen middoth of Ishmael.

The seven middoth of Hillel are listed in A.R.N. 37, the introduction to Sifra 3a, and T.San, vii. 11. The middoth are:

1. Qal waḥomer: what applies in a less important case will certainly apply in a more important case.

2. Gezerah shawah: verbal analogy from one verse to another; where the same words are applied to two separate cases it follows that the same considerations apply to both.

3. Binyan ab mikathub 'eḥad: building up a family from a single text; when the same phrase is found in a number of passages, then a consideration found in one of them applies to all of them.

4. Binyan ab mishene kethubim: building up a family from two texts; a principle is established by relating two texts together; the principle can then be applied to other passages.

5. Kelal upherat: the general and the particular; a general principle may be restricted by a particularisation of it in another verse; or conversely, a particular rule may be extended into a general principle.

6. Kayoẓe bo bemaqom 'aḥer: as is found in another place; a difficulty in one text may be solved by comparing it with another which has points of general (though not necessarily verbal) similarity.