.

Sweet is ev'n sorrow coming in his name,
Nor will I seek its purpose to explore,
His praise will I continually proclaim,
And bless him evermore.

Ibn Ezra wandered over many lands, and even visited London, where he
stayed in 1158. Ibn Ezra was famed, not only for his poetry, but also
for his brilliant wit and many-sided learning. As a mathematician, as a
poet, as an expounder of Scriptures, he won a high place in Jewish
annals. In his commentaries he rejected the current digressive and
allegorical methods, and steered a middle course between free research
on the one hand, and blind adherence to tradition on the other. Ibn Ezra
was the first to maintain that the Book of Isaiah contains the work of
two prophets--a view now almost universal. He never for a moment
doubted, however, that the Bible was in every part inspired and in every
part the word of God. But he was also the father of the "Higher
Criticism." Ibn Ezra's pioneer work in spreading scientific methods of
study in France was shared by Joseph Kimchi, who settled in Narbonne in
the middle of the twelfth century. His sons, Moses and David, were
afterwards famous as grammarians and interpreters of the Scriptures.
David Kimchi (1160-1235) by his lucidity and thoroughness established
for his grammar, "Perfection" (_Michlol_), and his dictionary, "Book of
Roots," complete supremacy in the field of exegesis. He was the favorite
authority of the Christian students of Hebrew at the time of the
Reformation, and the English Authorized Version of 1611 owed much to
him.

At this point, however, we must retrace our steps, and cast a glance at
Hebrew literature in France at a period earlier than the era of Ibn
Ezra.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

TRANSLATIONS OF SPANISH-HEBREW POEMS:

Emma Lazarus.--_Poems_ (Boston, 1889).

Mrs. H. Lucas.--_The Jewish Year_ (New York, 1898), and in
Editions of the Prayer-Books. See also (Abrahams) _J.Q.R._,
XI, p. 64.

IBN GEBIROL.

Graetz.--III, 9.

D. Rosin.--_The Ethics of Solomon Ibn Gebirol_, 7. _J.Q.R._,
III, p. 159.

MOSES IBN EZRA.

Graetz.--III, p. 319 [326].

ABRAHAM IBN EZRA.

Graetz.--III, p. 366 [375].

Abraham Ibn Ezra's Commentary on Isaiah (tr. by M. Friedlaender, 1873).

M. Friedlaender.--_Essays on Ibn Ezra_ (London, 1877). See also
_Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England_,
Vol. II, p. 47, and J. Jacobs, _Jews of Angevin England_,
p. 29 _seq._

KIMCHI FAMILY.