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 the Essence and Greatness of God. These, however (the Essence and Greatness of God) need not be considered as something separate from the God Himself or as part of the Creation, so that God would appear to have existed both without the throne, and with the throne: such a belief would be undoubtedly heretical. It is distinctly stated," Thou, 0 Lord, remainest for ever; Thy throne from generation to generation" (Lam. v. 19). By" Thy throne" we must, therefore, understand something inseparable from God. On that account, both here and in all similar passages. the word" throne" denotes God's Greatness and Essence, which are inseparable from His Being.

Our opinion will be further elucidated in the course of this Treatise.

CHAPTER X
WE have already remarked that when we treat in this work of homonyms, we have not the intention to exhaust the meanings of a word (for this is not a philological treatise): we shall mention no other significations but those which bear on our subject. We shall thus proceed in our treatment of the terms alah and yarad.

These two words, alah," he went up," and yarad, 'I he went down," are Hebrew terms used in the sense of ascending and descending. When a body moves from a higher to a lower place, the verb yarad," to go down." is used; when it moves from a lower to a higher place, alah," to go up," is applied. These two verbs were afterwards employed with regard to greatness and power. When a man falls from his high position, we say" he has come down," and when he rises in station" he has gone up." Thus the Almighty says," The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low" (Deut. xxviii. 43). Again," The Lord thy God will set thee on high ('elyon) above all nations of the earth" (Deut. xxviii. 1):" And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly" (lema'alah) (I Chron. XXiX. 25). The Sages often employ these expressions, as:" In holy matters men must ascend (ma'alin) and not descend (moridin)." The two words are also applied to intellectual processes, namely, when we reflect on something beneath ourselves we are said to go down, and when our attention is raised to a subject above us we are said to rise.

Now, we occupy a lowly position, both in space and rank in comparison with the heavenly sphere, and the Almighty is Most High not in space, but with respect to absolute existence, greatness and power. When it pleased the Almighty to grant to a human being a certain degree of wisdom or prophetic inspiration, the divine communication thus made to the prophet and the entrance of the Divine Presence into a certain place is termed (yeridah)," descending," while the termination of the prophetic communication or the departure of the divine glory from a place is called aliyah," ascending."

The expressions" to go up" and" to go down," when used in reference to God, must be interpreted in this sense. Again, when, in accordance with the divine will, some misfortune befalls a nation or a region of the earth, and when the biblical account of that misfortune is preceded by the statement that the Almighty visited the actions of the people, and that He punished them