YIR'AM OF MAGDIEL:
Italian Biblical commentator; lived at Rome in the tenth century. Yir'am was styled "of Magdiel " in conformity with the rabbinical interpretation which refers the name "Magdiel" (Gen. xxxvi. 43) to Rome (comp. Rashi ad loc.). He was a junior contemporary and perhaps also a pupil of Saadia, and was the author of a commentary on Chronicles, some fragments of which were united by a compiler with writings of other commentators, among them Judah ibn Ḳuraish, the whole being edited by Kirchheim under the title "Ein Kommentar zur Chronik aus dem 10. Jahrhundert" (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1874). There are extant only three fragments of Yir'am's commentary: the first is taken from Saadia's commentary; the second is a haggadic explanation of certain words; and the third is an interpretation of the subject-matter, as to which Yir'am is charged by the compiler with not having thoroughly penetrated into the meaning of the passage.
- Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, i. 184.