CHAPTER 13

Standing [ʿamidah] is an equivocal term. Sometimes it has the meaning: to rise and stand. Thus: When he stood before Pharaoh;¹ Though Moses and Samuel stood;² And he stood by them.³ And sometimes it has the meaning: to abstain and desist. Thus: Because they stood still and answered no more;⁴ And she left off⁵ bearing.⁶ Elsewhere it has the meaning: to be stable and durable. Thus: That they may stand many days;⁷ Then shalt thou be able to stand;⁸ His taste stood in him,⁹ that is, it was stable, durable, and unchanged; His righteousness standeth for ever10 that is, it is permanent and enduring. Whenever the term standing occurs with reference to God, may He be exalted, it is used in the last sense. Thus: And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives,¹¹ that is, his intermediate causes, I mean His effects, shall be established. This shall be made clear when the equivocality of the term foot is mentioned. This meaning also occurs in the words of God, may He be exalted, [to Moses]: But as for thee, stand thou here by Me;¹² and in the verse: I stood between the Lord and you.¹³ [22a]