על הכרובים א׳On the Cherubim 1
א׳
1ON THE CHERUBIM, AND THE FLAMING SWORD, AND CAIN THE FIRST MAN CREATED OUT OF MAN
[1] “And he cast forth Adam and set [him] over against the Garden of Pleasure [and posted] the Cherubim and the sword of flame which turns every way, to guard the way of the Tree of Life” (Gen. 3:24). Observe the word “cast forth” instead of the earlier “sent forth” (ib. 23). The words are not set down at random, but chosen with a knowledge of the things to which he applies them in their proper and exact sense.
[1] “And he cast forth Adam and set [him] over against the Garden of Pleasure [and posted] the Cherubim and the sword of flame which turns every way, to guard the way of the Tree of Life” (Gen. 3:24). Observe the word “cast forth” instead of the earlier “sent forth” (ib. 23). The words are not set down at random, but chosen with a knowledge of the things to which he applies them in their proper and exact sense.
ב׳
2[2] He who is sent forth is not thereby prevented from returning. He who is cast forth by God is subject to eternal banishment. For to him who is not as yet firmly in the grip of wickedness it is open to repent and return to the virtue from which he was driven, as an exile returns to his fatherland. But to him that is weighed down and enslaved by that fierce and incurable malady, the horrors of the future must needs be undying and eternal: he is thrust forth to the place of the impious, there to endure misery continuous and unrelieved.
ג׳
3[3] And thus we see that Hagar or the lower education, whose sphere is the secular learning of the schools, while she twice departs from sovereign virtue in the person of Sarah, does once retrace her steps. On this first occasion hers was a voluntary flight, not a banishment, and when she met the angel or divine reason, she returned to her master’s house (Gen. 16:6 ff.). The second time she is cast forth utterly, never to return (Gen. 21:14).
