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Part One · Chapter Twenty — Ram & Nissa
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Ram is an equivocal noun, for the sense of elevation of place and the sense of elevation of rank — I mean majesty, honor, and might. He said: 'and the ark was lifted up above the earth' (Gen 7:17) — and this is of the first sense.
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And He said: 'I have exalted one chosen out of the people' (Ps 89:20); 'forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust' (1 Kgs 16:2); 'forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people' (1 Kgs 14:7) — of the second sense.
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And every expression of 'exalting' that comes regarding God is of this second sense: 'be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens' (Ps 57:6).
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And likewise nissa bears the sense of raising in place and the sense of raising in rank and abundance of fortune: 'and they laded their corn upon their asses' (Gen 42:26) — of the first sense, and there are many like it in the sense of carrying and conveying, for it is a raising in place.
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And of the second sense: 'and his kingdom shall be exalted' (Num 24:7); 'and He bore them and carried them' (Isa 63:9); 'wherefore then lift ye up yourselves' (Num 16:3).
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So every expression of 'lifting up' that comes ascribed to God, may He be exalted, is of this last sense: 'lift up Thyself, Thou judge of the earth' (Ps 94:2); 'thus saith the high and lofty One' (Isa 57:15) — loftiness, majesty, and might, not loftiness of place.
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Perhaps my words 'loftiness of rank, majesty, and might' will trouble you, and you will say: how do you make many notions of a single notion? It will be explained to you that God, may He be exalted, is, for the perfected apprehenders, not described by many attributes.
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And that all these manifold descriptions — which signify magnification, might, power, perfection, bounty, and the rest — all return to a single notion; and that notion is His essence, not a thing outside the essence. And chapters on the names and the attributes will come to you.
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The aim of this chapter is only that 'high and lifted up' does not mean, and is not to be understood as, loftiness of place, but loftiness of rank.