IBN JACHJA, JosEPir, b. David, b. Joseph, b. David, b. Joseph, b. Salomon, b. David, b. Gedaliah, b. Salomo, b. Joseph, b. Jehudah, b. Don Jachja, the Spaniard. This commentator, the eleventh generation of the celebrated ancient family Ibn Jachia, was born in 1494 at Florence, whither his mother Dinah, clad in man's apparel, followed her husband, who had fled from Portugal in consequence of the religious persecutions which John II., called the perfect, following the example of Ferdinand, heaped upon the Jews for refusing to embrace Christianity. When a child, Ibn Jachja came with his parents. to Verona, thence went to Imola and Padua, where he studied under Jehudah Minz, and after he had finished his educa tion he returned to Imola, where he spent the remainder of his life and wrote his commentarics. At the age of thirty-three (January 20, 1527) he issued his first exegetical work, which is (1) A Commentary on the Five Illegilloth, viz., the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. This was followed by (2) .4 Commentary on the Psalms, which he published July '2; and (3) A Commentary on Proverbs, published on Septem ber 26 of the same year ; and (4) A Commentary on Daniel, on 7th July '529. The most important
books, especially the Psalms, are preceded by very extensive introductions. Ibn Jachja died at Imola in '539, having undermined his constitution with excessive literary labour; his remains were conveyed ten years after his death (1549) to Safet, where Joseph Caro had them deposited with great honour. The merits of his commentaries chiefly consist in the fact that they give a digest of the traditional interpretation of the Bible, and that the student of historico-critical exegesis finds in them ready at hand the Midrashic lore for which he would otherwise have to search in many an ancient volume. All the commentaries of Ibn Jachja are given in Frank furter's Rabbinic Bible [FRANKFURTER]. The commentary on Daniel has been translated into Latin by Constantin L'Empereur, and published at Amsterdam, '633, with the Hebrew text and a re futation of the anti-Christian passages. Comp. Carmoly, yzst's Israelitische Annalen, p. 393, etc. ; Cassel, in Ersch and Gruber's Allgemeine Encykloflia'ie, sect. ii. vol. xxxi., p. 81, etc. ; Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. 1476.—C. D. G.