Samuel the prophet who, when God, may He he exalted, called to him while he was in a state | of prophetic revelation, thought time and again — three times in all — that Eli the Priest had summoned him.11 Scripture then explains the cause of this, saying that he was obliged to act so and to think that it was Eli who called him because he did not know then that the speech of God to the prophets takes place in this form, this secret not having as yet been revealed to him. Accordingly in order to account for the cause of this, it says: Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.12 It means that he did not know and that it had not been revealed to him that the word of the Lord comes in this way. The dictum, did not yet know the Lord, means that he had had no previous prophecy. For it is said of him who becomes a prophet: I do make Myself known unto him in a vision.15 Thus the interpretation of the verse with respect to its meaning is as follows: Before that time Samuel had not become a prophet; neither did he know that such was the form of prophecy. Know this.
CHAPTER 45 CHAPTER 45 After the preceding explanation of the true reality of prophecy according il to the requirements of speculation combined with the explanation supplied by our Law, it behooves me to mention to you the degrees of prophecy according to these two sources. Now not everybody who is found in one of the degrees, which I call degrees of prophecy, is a prophet. For the first and second degree are steppingstones toward prophecy, and someone who has attained one of them is not to be considered as a prophet belonging to the class of prophets discussed in the preceding chapters. And even though he may sometimes be called a prophet, this term is applied to him in a general sort of way, because he is very close to the prophets. You should not be misled with regard to those degrees by the fact that sometimes you find in | the prophets’ books that a prophetic revelation came to a prophet in the form characteristic of a certain degree and withal it is made clear with regard to the very same prophet that a prophetic revelation also came to him under a form characteristic of another degree. For with regard to the degrees I shall mention, it sometimes happens that some 1 of the prophetic 1. Or: one.
The Guide of the Perplexed II ■ 45 [936 revelation of one particular prophet comes to him according to a form characteristic of a certain degree, whereas another prophetic revelation, which comes to him at another time, corresponds to a degree inferior to that of the first prophetic revelation. For just as a prophet may not prophesy continuously the whole of his life, but prophesies at a certain moment and is abandoned by prophecy at many other moments, so may he also prophesy at a certain moment in a form characteristic of a high degree, and at another moment in a form characteristic of an inferior degree. Sometimes perhaps he achieves this high degree only once in his life and then is deprived of it and perhaps remains fixed in the inferior degree until the cessation of his prophesying. For there is no doubt that the prophesying of all2 the prophets comes to an end before their death, either shortly or a long time before. This is made clear with regard to Jeremiah by the dictum, At the termination of the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah,5 and with regard to David by the dictum: Now these are the last words of David.* From this one must draw an inference to all the prophets. After having made and propounded this introduction, I shall begin to set forth the degrees that have been alluded to, and shall accordingly make the follow¬ ing statement.
THE FIRST DEGREE The first of the degrees of prophecy consists in the fact that an indi¬ vidual receives5 a divine help that moves and activates him to a great, righteous, and important action — such as the deliverance of a community of virtuous people from a community of wicked people, or the deliverance of a virtuous and great man, or the conferring of benefits6 on numerous people. The individual in question finds in himself something | that moves and incites him to the action, and that is called the spirit of the Lord. And it is said of the individual who was in such a state that the spirit of the Lord came upon him,7 or that the spirit of the Lord clothed him,8 or that the spirit of the Lord rested upon him,9 or that the Lord was with him,-10 or other similar expressions are applied to him. This is the grade of all the judges of Israel of whom it is said in general that: And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lard was with the judge, and delivered 2. Or; the rest of the prophets. 3. Ezra 1:i. 4. II Sam. 23:1.
5. More or less literally; is accompanied by. 6. Literally: making good overflow.
8. Cf. Judg. 6:34; I Chron. 12:19; II Chron. 24:20.
94 a] The Guide of the Perplexed II ■ 45 jpy them This is also the grade of all the virtuous Messiahs 12 of Israel. This is made clear especially with regard to some judges and kings: Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah}5 And it is said of Samson: And the spirit of the Lord came upon him}* And it is said: And the spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard [those'] tidings}5 Similarly it is said of Amasai when the Holy Spirit moved him to help David: Then the spirit clothed Amasai who was chief of the captains: Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse; peace, and so on.16 Know that such a force did not abandon Moses our Master from the moment he reached a man’s estate. It was because of this that he was moved to slay the Egyptian and to reprove the one who was in the wrong among the two men that struggled.17 The strength of this force in him shows in the fact that when — after having been filled with fear and having fled — he came to Midian as a stranger full of fear and saw some wrong that was done, he could not refrain from putting an end to it and was incapable of patience with regard to it, as it says: But Moses stood up and helped them}9 David likewise possessed19 such a force after being anointed with the oil of anointment. Accordingly the text says: And the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward }° And it was for this reason that he attacked the lion, the bear, and the Philistine. Such a spirit of the Lord by no means caused one of these to speak of anything; rather its object was to move the one strengthened21 by it to a certain action: not to any | chance action, but to an action that succors a wronged one — whether it be one great man or a community— or to an action that leads to that result. And just as not everyone who has seen a veridical dream is a prophet, not everyone who has received [divine] help22 in some chance matter — such as the acquisition of property or the achievement of an end that concerns him alone — can be said to have been accompanied by the spirit of the Lord, or to have the Lord with him, or to have done what he has done through the Holy Spirit. We only say this about one who has performed a good action of capital import or an action that leads to that result; as, for instance, the success of Joseph in the house of the Egyptian,25 which was, as is clear, the first cause for great things that occurred afterwards.
ii. Judg. 2:18. 12. Or: anointed 13. Judg. 11:29. 14- Judg. 14:19.
18. Exod. 2:17. 19. Literally: was accompanied by. 20. I Sam. 16:13.
21. al-miCayyad. The term is habitually applied to one who has received divine inspiration and help.
22. More or less literally: who has been accompanied by help.
23. Cf. Geri. 39:2.
yy8 The Guide of the Perplexed II ■ 45 [ Q4& THE SECOND DEGREE It consists in the fact that an individual finds that a certain thing has descended upon him and that another24 force has come upon him and has made him speak; so that he talks in wise sayings, in words of praise, in useful admonitory dicta, or concerning governmental or divine matters — and all this while he is awake and his senses function as usual. Such an individual is said to speak through the Holy Spirit. It is through this kind of Holy Spirit that David composed Psalms, and Solomon Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. Daniel and Job and Chronicles and all the other Writings 25 have likewise been composed through this kind of Holy Spirit. For this reason people call them Writings, meaning thereby that they are written through the Holy Spirit. [The Sages] have stated explicitly that the scroll of Esther was spoken through the Holy Spirit. 26 It is of this kind of Holy Spirit that David has said: The spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was upon my tongue f he meant that it caused him to speak the words in question. | It was to this group that the seventy elders belonged, of whom it is said: And it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, bul they did so no more.28 Eldad and Medad and every High Priest who was questioned through the Urim and Thummim also belong to this group; I mean to say that as [the Sages] have mentioned: The Indwelling rests upon him, and he speaks through the Holy Spirit 29 Yahaziel, son of Zechariah, likewise belongs to this group, as it is he of whom it is said in Chronicles: The spirit of the Lord came upon him in the midst of the congregation-, and he said: Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you, and so on.30 So does Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest, belong to this group, for it is said of him: And the spirit of God clothed Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said unto them; Thus saith God.3i Similarly, Azariah, son of Oded, of whom it is said: And the spirit of God came upon Azariah, son of Oded; and he went out to meet Asa, and so on.32 The same applies to all those of whom something similar is said. Know too that Balaam, when he was righteous, also belonged to this kind. This is the meaning that it intends to convey in the dictum: 24. I.e., as it seems, a force different from the one discussed by Maimonides when speaking of the first degree of prophecy.
25. The Hebrew Bible is divided into the Torah or Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings or Hagiographa ( Ketubim ).
52. II Chron. 15:1—2.
95 a ] The Guide of the Perplexed II -45 jyy And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth. 35 It is as if it said that he spoke through the Holy Spirit. It is for this reason that [Balaam] says of himself, who heareth the words of God.3* One of the things to which we must draw attention is that David and Solomon and Daniel belong to this group and not to that of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Nathan the prophet and Ahijah the Shilonite and men similar to them. For they — I mean David and Solomon and Daniel — spoke and said what they said through the Holy Spirit. As for David's dictum, The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me,35 it means that [God] gave him a promise through the instru¬ mentality of a prophet, either through Nathan or somebody else 5 as in the case when it is said:36 And the Lord said unto her,-37 and as in the case when it is said: Wherefore the Lord said j unto Solomon: Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept My covenant33 — a dictum that indubit¬ ably gives expression to an announcement of future ill39 made through the instrumentality of the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite or somebody else. Similarly the dictum concerning Solomon: In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, and so on,*0 is not pure prophecy like the one mentioned in the verse: The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying,*1 or like the one mentioned in the verse: And God spoke unto Israel in the visions of the night,*7' or like the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah. For even if prophetic revelation came to each of the latter in a dream, every one of them was informed through that same prophetic revelation that this was a prophecy and that prophetic revelation had come to him ■, whereas in this story about Solomon it says at the end: And Solomon awoke, and, behold, it was a dream f and similarly in the second story it says: The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon j** this makes it clear that it was a dream. This grade is below the one of which it is said: I do speak with him in a dream.*3 For those who prophesy in a dream, by no means call this state a dream after prophecy has come to them in a dream, but state decidedly that it was a prophetic revelation. Thus Jacob our Father j for after he had awakened from his prophetic dream, he did not say that it was a dream, but stated decidedly: Surely the Lord is in this place, and so on.*6 And he also said: God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan f he thus decided that that was a prophetic revelation. Whereas with regard to 39. The literal meaning of the word used is “a promise of ill.” 40. I Kings 3:5.
joo The Guide of the Perplexed 11-45 [ 956 Solomon, it says: And Solomon awoke, and, behold, it was a dream. Similarly you will find that Daniel applies to them the expression “dreams,” even though he saw an angel in those dreams and heard words spoken in them. He calls them dreams even after he has received knowledge through them. Thus it says: Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a vision of the night,48 It also says: Then he wrote the dream, and so on;*9 I saw in my vision by night, and so on;50 And the visions of | my head affrighted me.51 And he says: And I was appalled at the vision, but understood it not.52 There is no doubt that this grade is below the grade of those of whom it is said: I do speak with him in a dream.55 For this reason the nation54 has reached a consensus to put the book of Daniel among the Writings,55 and not among the Prophets. For this reason I called your attention to the fact that in the kind of prophecy that came to Daniel and Solomon, they did not discover in their souls — even though they saw- an angel in a dream — that this was a pure prophecy, but rather that this was a dream communi¬ cating the true reality of certain matters. This is characteristic of the group of people who speak through the Holy Spirit. This is the second degree.
Similarly, when arranging the Holy Scriptures, they56 made no difference between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Daniel and Psalms, on one hand, and the Scroll of Ruth or the Scroll of Esther on the other; all of them have been written through the Holy Spirit. Also all these are called, in a general way, prophets.
THE THIRD DEGREE This is the first of the degrees of those who say, The word of the Lord came to me, or who use expressions having a similar sense. This class tends to be represented through a prophet’s seeing57 a parable in a dream accord¬ ing to all the conditions set forth before with regard to the true reality of prophecy. And it is in the dream of prophecy itself that the meaning of the parable — what was intended thereby — is made manifest to the prophet, as for instance in most of the parables of Zechariah,58 THE FOURTH DEGREE consists in the prophet’s hearing articulate and clear speech in the dream 52. Dan. 8:27. 53. Num. 12:6. 54. Or: religious community.
55. Cf. n. 25, this chap. 56. The ones who did this.
57. Literally: What from the expressions tended toward this meaning is that the prophet sees...58. Cf. II 43.
g6Z>] The Guide of the Perplexed II • 43 401 of prophecy, but without seeing the speaker; as has happened to Samuel in the first prophetic revelation that came to him, as we have explained with regard to him.59 | THE FIFTH DEGREE This consists in the prophet’s being addressed by a man in a dream, as it says in one of Ezekiel’s prophecies: And the man said unto me: Son of man, and so on.60 THE SIXTH DEGREE consists in the prophet’s being addressed by an angel in a dream. This is the state of the majority of the prophets. Thus it says: And the angel of God said unto me in the dream, and so on.6i THE SEVENTH DEGREE consists in the fact that in the dream of prophecy the prophet sees, as it were, that He, may He be exalted, addresses him. Thus Isaiah says: I saw the Lord, and so on.62 And He said,6* Whom shall I send, and so on.6* Thus Micaiah, son of Imla, says: I saw the Lord, and so on.65 THE EIGHTH DEGREE consists in the fact that a prophetic revelation comes to the prophet in a vision of prophecy and that he sees parables, as Abraham in the vision between the pieces,-66 for these parables came in a vision during the day, as has been set forth.67 THE NINTH DEGREE THE NINTH DEGREE consists in the prophet’s hearing speech in a vision, as is said with regard to Abraham: And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir 66 | 62. Isa. 6:1. The quotation is not quite accurate. The verb has a different tense in the Bible than the one used in Maimonides’ quotation.
63. The verbal form used by Maimonides is not the one occurring in the biblical text.
402 The Guide of the Perplexed II • 45 [ 97a THE TENTH DEGREE consists in the prophet’s seeing a man who addresses him in a vision of prophecy, as Abraham again by the terebinths of Mamre and as Joshua in Jericho.69 THE ELEVENTH DEGREE THE ELEVENTH DEGREE consists in the prophet’s seeing an angel who addresses him in a vision, as Abraham at the time of the binding J° In my opinion this is the highest of the degrees of the prophets whose states are attested by the prophetic books, after the perfection of the rational faculties of the individual, considered as necessary71 by speculation, has been established, and provided one exempts Moses our Master. With regard to the question whether it is possible that a prophet would also see in a vision of prophecy that God, as it were, addressed him — this, in my opinion, is improbable, for the power of the act of the imagination does not reach this point. And we have not found this state in the other prophets.72 For this reason it is clearly said in the Torah: I do make Myself known unto him [elav ethvada ] in a vision, I do speak with him in a dream.16 Thus it assigns speech to dreams only, assigning to visions the union and overflow of the intellect, this being signified by the words: elav ethvada. For [“ethvada”] is a reflexive form74, of the verb yadoca [to know]. Thus it is not explicitly stated that speech coming from God can be heard in a vision.
Inasmuch as I found scriptural texts attesting that prophets heard speech — it having been made clear that this was in a vision — I said by way of conjecture that it is possible that the speech that is heard in a dream and the like of which may not occur in a vision, is that regarding which it is imagined by the prophet that God addresses him; all this is said in following the external sense of the verse. One could also say that every vision in which you find the prophet hearing speech was in its beginning | a vision, but ended in a state of submersion75 and became a dream, as we have explained with regard to the dictum: And a deep sleep fell upon Abram 16 [The Sages] have said: This is the deep sleep of prophecy.11 All 69. Cf. II 42. 70. Of Isaac with a view to sacrificing him; cf. Gen. 22.
71. Rather than “obtained,” which is Munk’s interpretation.
72. I.e., with the exception of Moses. However, the text can also be translated: in any of the prophets.
73. Num. 12:6.
74. In the text: iflical, which is a reflexive form of Arabic verbs. 75. In sleep.
76. Gen. 15:12. 77. Genesis Rabbah, XVII and XLIV.
97 b ] The Guide of the Perplexed II * 46 403 speech that is heard, whatever the way may be in which it is heard, is heard only in a dream; as the text has it: I do speak with him in a dream,78 On the other hand, in a vision of prophecy only parables or intellectual unifications79 are apprehended that give actual cognition of scientific matters similar to those, knowledge of which is obtained through speculation, as we have explained. This is the meaning of its dictum: I do make Myself known unto him in a vision.80 Consequently, according to this last allegoric interpretation, there are eight degrees of prophecy; the highest and most perfect among them being the one in which the prophet prophesies in a vision — taking this in a general way — even though, as has been mentioned, he is merely addressed by a man. Perhaps you will proffer an objection to me, saying: You have counted among the degrees of prophecy the degree in which the prophet hears speech coming from God who addres¬ ses him, as in the cases of Isaiah and Micaiah. How can this be in view of the fact that our principle states that all prophets hear speech only through the intermediary of an angel, the sole exception being Moses our Master, of whom it is said: With him do I speak mouth to mouth,81 Know then that this is in fact so, and that in these cases the intermediary is the imaginative faculty. For a prophet can hear only in a dream of prophecy that God has spoken to him. Moses our Master, on the other hand, heard Him from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim,82 without action on the part of the imaginative faculty. We have already set forth in Mishneh Torah the peculiarities of this prophecy and have interpreted the meaning of the passages: Mouth to mouth?5 As a man speaketh unto his friend?* and of other passages.85 Understand this from there; and there will be no need to repeat what has already been said. | CHAPTER 46 From a single individual an inference can be drawn concerning all individ¬ uals of the species, and it can be known that this particular form is that of all the individuals of the species. What I want to say by this is that from 78. Num. 12:6.
79. I.e., the union of the Active Intellect with the intellect of the prophet.
84. Exod. 33:11. 85. Cf. Mishneh Torah, Yesodei ha-Torah, VII 6.
404 The Guide of the Perplexed II • 46 [ a single form of the communications of the prophets, an inference can be drawn to all the communications belonging to that species.
After this introduction you should know that just as a man sees while sleeping that he has made a journey to a certain country, has married there, has stayed there for a certain time, that a son was born to him there, that he called him by a certain name, and that this son’s circumstances and state were such and such; so in the case of prophetic parables seen or enacted in a vision of prophecy, when the parable requires a certain action, when things are done by the prophet, when intervals of time are mentioned within the parable between the various actions and the transportation from one place to another, this takes place only in a vision of prophecy, they are not real actions, actions that exist for the external senses. Some of them are set forth in the books of prophecy without qualification.1 For since it is known that all these things occur in a vision of prophecy. Scripture in the recounting of all details of the parable may dispense with reiterating that they happened in a vision of prophecy. Similarly a prophet may say, And the Lord said unto me,2 without having the need to state explicitly that this happened in a dream. Therefore the multitude think that these actions, transportations, questions, and answers, occurred all of them in a