CHAPTER 22

To come [boʾ]. Coming [al-biʾ ah] in the Hebrew language has been given a meaning that refers to the coming of a living being, I mean his drawing near some place or some other individual. Thus: Thy brother came with guile.¹ The word has also been given a meaning that refers to a living being entering some place. Thus: And Joseph came home;² When ye be come to the land.³ This term is also used figuratively to denote the coming about⁴ of something that is not at all corporeal. Thus: When thy words come to pass we may do thee honor;5 From the things that shall come upon thee.⁶ It is, in consequence, applied figuratively even to certain privations.⁷ Thus: Yet trouble came;⁸ And darkness came.⁹ Since the term had been thus figuratively applied to what is in no way a body, it was also figuratively applied to the Creator, may He be honored and magnified, either to the descent¹⁰ of His decree or to that of His Indwelling. It is in view of this figurative use that it is said: Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud;¹¹ For the Lord, the God of Israel, comes through it.¹² All passages similar to these signify the descent of the Indwelling.¹³ The verse, And the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee,¹⁴ signifies, on the other hand, the descent of God’s decree or the realization of the promises made by Him through His prophets. This last notion is signified in [27b] the dictum: All the holy ones with thee. Scripture says, as it were: And the word of the Lord my God shall come through all the holy ones who are with thee, the people of Israel being the one addressed.