והלא כתוב בתורה ועבדום וענו אותם וכו'. א"א אלה הם אריכות דברים שאינן מתובלים וחיי ראשי כמעט אני אומר שהם דברי נערות. יאמר הבורא לזונים למה זנית ואני לא הזכרתיך בשם כדי שתאמר שעליך גזרתי יאמרו לו הזונים ועל מי חלה גזרתך על אותן שלא זנו הנה לא נתקיימה גזרתך. אבל וקם העם הזה וזנה כבר אמרנו שאין בענין הזה ידיעת הבורא גזירה וכ"ש בכאן שאף משה אמר כי השחת תשחיתון הן בעודני חי עמכם ואף כי אחרי מותי וכ"ש הבורא שהיה יכול לומר כן בלא גזירה. וענין המצרים אינה שאלה משני פנים. האחד כי הדבר ידוע שאין הבורא נפרע מאדם רע אלא ברע ממנו ואחר שיפרע מזה יחזור ויפרע מן הרע ממנו ברשעו וכן הוא אומר הוי אשור שבט אפי כהתימך שודד תושד פי' מפני רשעך וגודל לבך והתפארך עלי. והמצרים ג"כ רשעים היו וראויים למכות ההם ואילו שמעו למשה בתחלה ושלחו את ישראל לא היו לוקים ולא טבעו בים אבל זדונו של פרעה ובזותו את הבורא יתברך לפני שלוחו הוא גרם לו. והשני כי הבורא אמר וענו אותם והם עבדו בהם בפרך והמיתו מהם וטבעו מהם כענין שנאמר אני קצפתי מעט והם עזרו לרעה לפיכך נתחייבו: Now.. is it not written etc. These are unseasoned, lengthy words; by the life of my head, I am tempted to say, they are childish words. Should the Creator say to the perverters: "Why did thou turn aside, I made no mention of thy name, to afford thee the excuse of saying that I decreed it against thee", the perverters will say to Him: "Upon whom then is Thy decree applicable, if on those who did not turn aside, behold, Thy decree was not established". But of, this Verse "And this people will rise up, and go astray after the foreign gods of the land", we long ago suggested that in the subject of the foreknowledge of God there is no connection with predestination, much less can it be utilized here, seeing that even Moses said: "For I know that after my death ye will in any wise deal corruptly" (Deut. 31.29), and preceding this he, moreover, said: "Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death?". How much more, then could the Creator speak thus without it being a decree? As for the subject of the Egyptians, it is no question at all for two reasons: first, it is a known doctorine that God inflicts no punishment against a wicked man unless it be through a more wicked man than he, whenafter that wicked man will have retribution visited upon him; For, so it is said: "O Ashur, the rod of Mine anger", (Is. 10.5), but, "When thou hast ceased to spoil, thou shalt be spiled" (Ibid. 33.1); because of thy wickedness, and haughtiness of thy heart, and vain glory against Me. The Egyptians, too, were wicked and it was meet that they receive the plagues; yet, if they had listened to Moses at first and let the children of Irsael go forth, they would neither have been plagued nor drowned in the Red Sea; but the spitefulness of Pharoah, and his insulting words against the Creator in the presence of His messenger caused the punishment to be visited upon him. Second, because the Creator said: "And they shall afflict them" (Gen. 15.13), but they afflicted them with rigour, put some of them to death, and killed others by drowning, as the subject is spoken of saying: "I was but a little angry, but they helped for evil" (Zech. 1.15); they were, therefore, found guilty". *Rabbi Abraham De Butin, too, criticises Maimonides for delving into this subject again, after he already gave his opinion that we can not comprehend the foreknowledge of God in the preceding chapter. The RiTBa, in defending Maimonides, here falls in an error regarding the RABD, by attributing to him knowledge of Kabalah, an attribute belonging to RABD I. With all the commentaries silent, it is evident that, as far as this defence of the doctorine of self-will versus predestination is concerned, it must be considered weak. The text of this paragraph, however, lends itself to very strong points. The parallelism herein contained is more than of passing strength. Of course, Maimonides establishes the ultimate point upon Faith; but his arguments are chiefly directed to offset contradictions to the Torah. In this he succeeded. The RABD, too, upholds the doctorine of choice of action as against predestination. C.G.