על שהאל הוא ללא שינוי ט״וOn the Unchangeableness of God 15
א׳
1[70] Such are the points which needed to be established as preliminaries to our inquiry. We must return to the original question which caused us difficulty, namely, what thought is suggested by the words “I was wroth in that I made them.” Perhaps then he wishes to shew us that the bad have become what they are through the wrath of God and the good through His grace. For the next words are “but Noah found grace with Him” (Gen. 6:8).
ב׳
2[71] Now the passion of wrath, which is properly speaking an attribute of men, is here used in a more metaphorical sense, yet still correctly, of the Existent, to bring out a vital truth, that all our actions by general consent are worthy of blame and censure, if done through fear or anger, or grief or pleasure, or any other passion, but worthy of praise if done with rectitude of reason and knowledge.
ג׳
3[72] Mark what caution he shows in his form of statement. He says “I was wroth in that I made them,” not in the reverse order, “because I made them, I was wroth.” The latter would show change of mind or repentance, a thing impossible to the all-foreseeing nature of God. In the former he brings before us a doctrine of great importance that wrath is the source of misdeeds, but the reasoning faculty of right actions.
ד׳
4[73] But God, remembering His perfect and universal goodness, even though the whole vast body of mankind should through its exceeding sinfulness accomplish its own ruin, stretches forth the right hand of salvation, takes them under His protection and raises them up, and suffers not the race to be brought to utter destruction and annihilation.