And the tables were the work of God.1 He intends to signify by this that this existence was natural [85a] and not artificial, for all natural things are called the work of the Lord: These saw the works of the Lord.2 Accordingly after he has mentioned all natural things, such as plants, animals, winds, rains, and others of the same kind, he says: How manifold are Thy works, O Lord!3 He went even further than this ascription in saying: The cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted.4 It is because the existence of the cedars is natural and not artificial that he says that God has planted them. Similarly when it says5 the writing of God,6 it has already made clear in what way the writing may be ascribed to God by its saying7 written with the finger of God.8 Its saying with the finger of God is analogous to its saying, with reference to the heavens, the work of Thy fingers.9 For Scripture has made clear with regard to the heavens that they have been made by saying: By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.10 It has then become clear to you that, with regard to the coming into being of a thing, the texts figuratively use the terms saying and speaking and that it is one and the same thing of which it is said that it was made by speech and of which it is said that it is the work of a finger. Similarly the dictum written with the finger of God is equivalent to its saying by the word of God. Furthermore, the expression by the word of God would, if Scripture had used it, be equivalent to its saying written by the will of God, I mean by His will and volition.11 As for Onqelos, with reference to this matter he puts forward a strange interpretation, for he translates: written with a finger belonging to the Lord. For he makes out that finger is a certain thing related to God and interprets the finger of the Lord in an analogous way to the mountain of the Lord, the rod of the Lord. He intends to signify by this that the finger is a created instrument that has cut into the tables through the will of God. I do not know what has led him to make this interpretation. For it would have been more plausible to translate written by the word of the Lord, just as the Scripture says: By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. Do you think that the existence of writing on the tables is any stranger than the existence of stars in the spheres? For just as the stars came into being through the First Will and not through an instrument, so this inscribed writing came into being through the First Will and not through an instrument. You already know [85b] the text of the Mishnah12 about ten things created in the twilight,13 among which were the writing and the inscription. This proves that there was a general consensus among the multitude that the writing on the tables was like all the other work in the beginning, as we have made clear in the Commentary on the Mishnah.