BEN-ZEB, JEHUDAII LEB. B. Benjamin-Zeb, a distinguished grammarian and lexicographer ; he was born in a small town in Poland, not far from Cracow, in 1766, and died at Vienna, February 25, 1811. Having devoted himself to the study of philosophy and philology, he resorted in 1787 to Berlin, where, at the age of 21, he published the work of Saadia Gaon, rein ninop5, on Religion and Philosophy, with a twofold commentary. He then went to Breslau, where he remained about ten years, and published, in 1796, his highly-esteemed 1161 Hebrew Grammar, written in Hebrew, of which improved editions appeared in Vienna, 1806, 1818, and 1825, and a German translation, hi a condensed form, by Landau, Prague, 1827. Two years later (1798) he issued from the press rit1 rjiro nnzn, the wisdom of 7oshua, the son of Szrach, in Syriac, with Hebrew letters, a Hebrew and German translation, and a Hebrew commentary, of which improved editions appeared in Vienna, 1807, 1818, 1828, and 1844 ; and twelve months after this, man+ n5vn, the Book of.7udith, translated into Hebrew and German, with a Hebrew commentary (Vienna, 1799), of which another edition appeared in 1819. He then changed his residence from Breslau to Vienna, where he published his famous school book roz -sporj, composed of two parts, a, ilthri thou, Method of learning Hebrew (the first edition of this had already appeared in 1793), and b; Ympt, ivIri+n, Ethics, of which improved editions appear ed in 1809, 1825, and 1842. In all these labours,
however, Ben-Zeb prepared himself and gathered materials for the publication of a Hebrew lexicon, as up to his time the only lexicon used by Jews, and also to a great extent by Christians, was that of Kimchi. Ben-Zeb, making Kimchi's lexicon his basis, published, in 1797-1798, his excellent `1Yiti Hebrew Lexicon, in three volumes, with the following improvements. 1. In the references to the different signification of the words according to their inflections. 2. In giving appropriate verbs as predicates of subjects. 3. In references to such ideas as are only expressed by peculiar phrases. 4. In putting together, in the third volume (which is German Hebrew), all the synonymous words. 5. In tracing the forms which developed themselves in the progress of the language. 6. In adding various exegetical matter • and 7. In giving a table of all the roots. Improved editions of it appeared in 1804, 1807, 1816, and 1839-1840. M. Letteris, the editor of the last edition, has greatly enriched it by introducing into it the labours of Gesenius, Rosenmiiller, De Wette, Hitzig, Reggio, Luzzatto, Zunz, etc. He also wrote op +cpppir4 An Introduction to the Old Testamint, which ap peared in Vienna 181o, and has since been printed in the Vienna Bible Work, in nineteen volumes, Vienna, 1832-1836.-C. D. G.