The Second Book of the Treatise on The Allegories of the Sacred Laws, after the Work of the Six Days of Creation.

 I. (1) And the Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help meet for him. Why, O prophet, is it not good for man to be

 II. (4) But it is not good for any man to be alone. For there are two kinds of men, the one made according to the image of God, the other fashioned ou

 III. (6) As, according to the most skilful physicians and natural philosophers, the heart appears to be formed before the rest of the body, after the

 IV. (9) Now of assistants there are two kinds, the one consisting in the passions and the other in the sensations. [...][A word or two are lost here.

 V. (14) This therefore he denominated the species of assistants, but the other part of the creation, the description, that is, of the formation of the

 VI. (16) But the moral meaning of this passage is as follows:--We often use the expression ti instead of dia ti (why?) as when we say, why (ti) have

 VII. (19) And God cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep and he took one of his ribs, and so on. The literal statement conveyed in the

 VIII. For immediately after the creation of the mind it was necessary that the external sense should be created, as an assistant and ally of the mind

 IX. (31) After this preface we must now proceed to explain the words: The Lord God, says Moses, cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep

 X. (35) He took one of his ribs. He took one of the many powers of the mind, namely, that power which dwells in the outward senses. And when he uses

 XI. (38) And he filled the space with flesh instead of it. That is to say, he filled up that external sense which exists according to habit, leading

 XII. (40) And he brought her to Adam. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. God leads the external sense, existing acco

 XIII. (44) And she shall be called woman. This is equivalent to saying, On this account the outward sensation shall be called woman, because it is d

 XIV. (49) On this account a man will leave his father and his mother and will cleave to his wife and they two shall become one flesh. On account of

 XV. (53) And they were both naked, both Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed but the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts that were

 XVI. (60) This is the most excellent nakedness, but the other nakedness is of a contrary nature, being a change which involves a deprivation of virtue

 XVII. (65) And the expression, they were not ashamed, we will examine hereafter: for there are three ideas brought forward in this passage. Shameles

 XVIII. (71) Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts which are upon the earth, which the Lord God Made.[Ge 3:1.] Two things having been

 XIX. (76) Why need we enlarge on the pleasures of the belly? For we may almost say that there are as may varieties of pleasure as there are of gentle

 XX. (79) How, then, can there be any remedy for this evil? When another serpent is created, the enemy of the serpent which came to Eve, namely, the wo

 XXI. (82) Do you not see that wisdom when dominant, which is Sarah, says, For whosoever shall hear it shall rejoice with Me.[Ge 21:6.] But suppose t

 XXII. (87) See now the difference between him who turns to sin in the desert and him who sins in Egypt. For the one is bitten by serpents which cause

 XXIII. (90) Well, therefore, does the Godloving Moses answer. For truly the actions of the virtuous man are supported by education as by a rod, tranqu

 XXIV. (94) Such a serpent Jacob boasts that Dan is, and he speaks thus: Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel:[Ge 49:16.] and ag

 XXV. (99) Biting the heel of the horse,--Very consistently the disposition which shakes the stability of the created and perishable being is called

 XXVI. (103) And we must also inquire, what is the reason why Jacob says, that the rider will fall Backward,[Ge 49:17.] and Moses says, that the hor

XXIV. (94) Such a serpent Jacob boasts that Dan is, and he speaks thus: "Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel:"[Ge 49:16.] and again, "Let Dan be a serpent in the path, sitting upon the road, biting the heel of the horse, and the rider shall fall backwards, waiting the salvation of the Lord."[Ge 49:17.] The fifth son of Leah is Issachar, the legitimate son of Jacob; but if the two sons of Zilpah are counted he is the seventh; but the fifth son of Jacob is Dan, the son of Billah, the handmaid of Rachel; and the cause of this we will investigate in the proper place, but concerning Dan we must examine further now. (95) The soul produces two kinds, the one divine and the other perishable; that which is the better kind it has already conceived, and ends in it; for when the soul was able to confess to God and to yield everything to him, it was not after that capable of receiving any more valuable possession; on this account she ceased to bring forth, after she had borne Judah, the emblem of the disposition of confessing--(96) and now she begins to form the mortal race--now the mortal race subsists by imbibing; for, like a foundation, the sense of taste is the cause of the duration of animals; but the name Billah, being interpreted, means imbibing. From her was born Dan, which name being interpreted means judgment, for this kind distinguishes between the separates immortal from mortal things, therefore he prays that he may become a workman of temperance. But he will not pray for Judah, for Judah already has the capacity of praying to and pleasing God: (97) "Therefore let Dan," says he, "be a serpent in the path."--One path is the soul. For as in the roads one may behold a great variety of living beings, inanimate and animate, irrational and rational, good and bad, slaves and free, young and old, male and female, strangers and natural citizens, sick and healthy, mutilated and perfect; so also in the soul there are motions inanimate, and imperfect, and diseased, and slavish, and female, and innumerable others of the class of evils; and on the other hand, there are motions which are living, and perfect, and masculine, and free, and healthy, and ripe, and virtuous, and genuine, and really legitimate. (98) Let then the principle of temperance be a serpent in the soul, which makes its advance through all the circumstances of life, and let it sit in the path. But what is the meaning of this expression?--The field of virtue is not trodden down; for they are few who walk along it, but that of vice is trodden and worn? And he recommends him here to occupy and to fill, with ambush and stratagem, the well-trodden path of passion and vice, in which the thoughts which are deserters from virtue pass their life.