In spite of his duties as a teacher and of his varied interests, Jost never neglected Jewish literature, especially Jewish history. His first work in this line was "Geschichte der Israeliten Seit der Zeit der Makkabäer bis auf Unsere Tage" (9 volumes, Berlin, 1820–28), which was followed by a small compendium under the title "Geschichte des Israelitischen Volkes ... für Wissenschaftlich-Gebildete Leser" (2 volumes, Berlin, 1832). This work, which ended with the Napoleonic era, was continued in his "Neuere Geschichte der Israeliten" (Berlin, 1846–47), bringing it down to the date of its publication. Toward the end of his life he wrote another historical work, "Geschichte des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten" (3 volumes, Leipzig, 1857–59), which deals with the whole of Jewish history down to 1858. Of other literary works of Jewish interest his edition of the Mishnah with vocalized text, German translation in Hebrew characters, and Hebrew commentary, deserves special mention (6 volumes, Berlin, 1832–36).