CHAPTER 38

Back [ʾaḥor]is an equivocal term. It is a term denoting the back.¹ Thus: Over the back of the tabernacle;² The spear came out [45b] at his back.3 Sometimes it is used as an adverb of time in the sense of: after. Neither at the back of him⁴ arose there any like him;⁵ At the back of these things.⁶ This use is frequent. The term also occurs in the meaning of following and imitating the conduct of some individual with respect to the conduct of life. Thus: Ye shall walk at the back of the Lord⁷ your God;⁸ They shall walk at the back of the Lord,⁹ which means following in obedience to Him and imitating His acts and conducting life in accordance with His conduct. Thus: He walked at the back of a commandment.¹⁰ In this sense it is said: And thou shalt see My back,¹¹ which means that thou shalt apprehend what follows Me, has come to be like Me, and follows necessarily from My will—that is, all the things created by Me, as I shall explain in a chapter¹² of this Treatise.¹³