על חיי משה, ספר א י״גOn the Life of Moses, Book I 13
א׳
1[68] But the details of the comparison must be considered. The bramble, as I have said, is a very weakly plant, yet it is prickly and will wound if one do but touch it. Again, though fire is naturally destructive, the bramble was not devoured thereby, but on the contrary was guarded by it, and remained just as it was before it took fire, lost nothing at all but gained an additional brightness.
ב׳
2[69] All this is a description of the nation’s condition as it then stood, and we may think of it as a voice proclaiming to the sufferers: “Do not lose heart; your weakness is your strength, which can prick, and thousands will suffer from its wounds. Those who desire to consume you will be your unwilling saviours instead of your destroyers. Your ills will work you no ill. Nay, just when the enemy is surest of ravaging you, your fame will shine forth most gloriously.”
ג׳
3[70] Again fire, the element which works destruction, convicts the cruel-hearted. “Exult not in your own strength” it says. “Behold your invincible might brought low, and learn wisdom. The property of flame is to consume, yet it is consumed, like wood. The nature of wood is to be consumed yet it is manifested as the consumer, as though it were the fire.”