I do not consider that—after having attained this degree and having gained the true knowledge that He, may He be exalted, exists not by virtue of an existence and is one not by virtue of a oneness—you require that the denial of the attribute of speech with reference to Him be explained to you. This is the case particularly in view of the general consensus of our community on the Torah being created. This is meant to signify that His speech that is ascribed to Him is created. It was ascribed to Him only because the words heard by Moses were created and brought into being by God, just as He has created all the things that He has created and brought into being. Later prophecy will be treated of at length. [84a] The intention here is to indicate that predicating speech of Him is similar to predicating of Him all the actions resembling ours. Thus the minds of people are rightly guided toward the view that there is a divine science apprehended by the prophets in consequence of God’s speaking to them and telling it to them so that we should know that the notions transmitted by them from God to us are not, as shall be made clear, mere products of their thought and insight. But this subject has already been mentioned by us.
The purpose of this chapter is to set forth that the words speaking and saying are equivocal, applied both to utterance by the tongue—as when it says, Moses spoke;1 And Pharaoh said2—and to notions represented by the intellect without being uttered—as when it says, Then said I in my heart;3 Then I spoke in my heart;4 And thy heart shall speak;5 My heart said unto thee;6 And Esau said in his heart.7 This meaning is frequent. The terms in question are also used to denote wishing, as in the verse, He thought8 to have slain David.9 It is as if it said he wished to slay him, that is, gave his mind to it. Thus: Thinkest thou10 to kill me;11 the interpretation and meaning of it are: do you want to kill me? And also in the verse: But all the congregation wanted12 to stone them with stones.13 This meaning likewise is frequent.
Now in all cases in which the words saying and speaking are applied to God, they are used in one of the two latter meanings. I mean to say that they are used to denote either will and volition or a notion that has been grasped by the understanding having come from God, in which case it is indifferent whether it has become known by means of a created voice or through one of the ways of prophecy, which we shall make clear. The terms in question never signify that He, may He be exalted, spoke using the sounds of letters and a voice, nor that He, may He be exalted, possesses a soul into which notions are impressed so that there would subsist in His essence a notion superadded to that essence. For these notions are attached to and related to Him in the same way as all other actions. As regards volition and will being denoted by the words saying and speaking [84b]—this, as we have made clear, is one of the meanings because of which these words are equivocal. In this case too they are used by way of likening Him to us. For as we have pointed out above,14 man cannot understand at first how, where there is a will that a thing should be done, that thing should be done by the mere will alone. In fact, if one thinks of it in a superficial way,15 there is no doubt that he who wills either does the thing the existence of which he wills, or commands somebody else to do it. For this reason the term “command” is figuratively used of God with reference to the coming to be of that which He has willed. Thus it is said that He commanded that this should come to be. The words are used accordingly by way of likening His actions to ours, in addition to their being used, as we have made clear, to indicate the meaning: he wished. In all cases in which He said, He said, occurs in the Account of the Beginning,16 it means He willed or wanted. This has already been said by an individual17 other than we and is very well known. The demonstration of this, I mean that His sayings [at the creation of the world] were volitions only and not speeches, lies in the fact that speech may only be addressed to an existent that receives the command in question. Thus the dictum of Scripture, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,18 is analogous to its dictum, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth, in the same verse. For the terms His word and His saying are used figuratively in the same way as the terms His mouth and the breath of His mouth, the intention being to signify that the heavens have come to exist through His purpose and will. No one among our renowned men of knowledge is ignorant of this. I do not need to make clear that the words saying and speaking have an identical meaning in the Hebrew language, as is shown by the verse: For it hath heard all the sayings of the Lord which He spoke.19