From the Spec: We considered raising exceptions on integer divide by zero, with these exceptions causing a trap in most execution environments. However, this would be the only arithmetic trap in the standard ISA (floating-point exceptions set flags and write default values, but do not cause traps) and would require language implementors to interact with the execution environment’s trap handlers for this case. Further, where language standards mandate that a divide-by-zero exception must cause an immediate control flow change, only a single branch instruction needs to be added to each divide operation, and this branch instruction can be inserted after the divide and should normally be very predictably not taken, adding little runtime overhead.