On April 25, 1655, six months before starting on his mission to Cromwell, Menasseh ben Israel--visionary about to play the rôle of statesman--completed in Amsterdam the Spanish book which forms the subject of this paper. Duodecimo in size (5¹⁄₄ x 2⁷⁄₈ inches), it consists of 12 + 259 pages, with a list of the author’s works published or projected, and on the last of the unpaginated leaves a Latin version of Psalm 126. In the catalogue of his works appended to the _Vindiciæ Judæorum_ (London, 1656) Menasseh includes “_Piedra pretiosa_, of _Nebuchadnezzar’s_ image, or the fifth Monarchy.” This was not, however, the real title. The title was, in truth, in Hebrew _Eben Yekarah_, and in Spanish _Piedra Gloriosa_, i.e., the “Precious Stone.” The date given above for the completion of the book is fixed by the dedication, which is addressed to Menasseh’s Christian friend, Isaac Vossius. On a casual glance the book seems a hopeless jumble of incongruities. Nebuchadnezzar’s image, Jacob’s dream, the combat of David and Goliath, the vision of Ezekiel--what have these in common, and what has the title to do with them? The answer to these questions is soon found. The whole work is Messianic, and in his usual symbolic style, Menasseh seizes on a “Stone” as the central feature for his little treatise. There was the stone, “cut out without hands,” which smote the image seen by the king of Babylon. There was the stone, gathered from the field of Beth-el, on which Jacob laid his weary head to rest when fleeing from his brother. There was the stone, picked smooth from the brook, with which David slew the Philistine. Perhaps the three were one and the same stone, Menasseh seems to imply. Anyhow, he saw in all these incidents a Messianic reference. Nebuchadnezzar’s image, with its feet of clay, typified the Gentiles that were to rise and fall before the great day of the Lord. The ladder of Jacob, with its ascending and descending angels, typified again the rise and fall of nations. David’s victory over Goliath foreshadowed the triumph of the Messiah over the powers of earth. And the whole is rounded off with Ezekiel’s vision of the chariot with its strange beasts and emblems--a chariot which, in the view accepted by Menasseh, typified the Kingdom of the Messiah. [Illustration: MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL (From an etching by Rembrandt, in the possession of Mr. Felix Warburg, New York)]