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Section 3. If someone asks: what is the meaning of these two names always used together in Scripture, 'the Lord God'?
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We reply: it has been established that the two refer to one meaning — as it says: 'For thus says the Lord, Creator of the heavens — He is God' (Is. 45:18).
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And His word: 'Know that the Lord is God — He made us...' (Ps. 100:3).
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Once this equation has been established, one need not worry if one name is attributed a particular act and the other a different act;
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and the linguistic analogue is: 'Jerubbaal son of Joash went and dwelt in his house' (Judg. 8:29), and afterwards: 'Gideon had seventy sons of his body' (Judg. 8:30) —
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one name is attributed one act and the other name a different act, without concern, since the text has already established that Jerubbaal is Gideon.
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If one asks: what is the meaning of 'My God, give voice to my cause' (Ps. 43:1) and likewise 'The Lord will thunder from heaven, and the Most High will make His voice heard'?
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We say to him: this is a double causative — 'thunder' because He is the Lord and because He is the Most High; 'rouse' because You are my God and because You are the Lord.
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Its linguistic analogue is: 'Hear this, all peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world — both sons of man and sons of people, rich and poor together' (Ps. 49:2–3);
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its meaning being: because you are peoples, and because you are inhabitants of the world, and because you are sons of man, and because you are sons of people —
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and the analogue is also: 'Fear not, My servant Jacob, and Jeshurun whom I have chosen' (Is. 44:2) — because you are Jacob, and because you are Jeshurun.
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In sum I say: everything found in the language of Scripture and in our language as the affirmers of unity — any word in describing our Creator or His act that seems to contradict what sound rational inquiry requires —
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— such a word has without doubt a figurative sense in the language, which investigators will find if they seek it;
and this topic does not require me to expand —
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...in explaining it in this book; and I will make clear the paths of figures, common usages, and the expansiveness of language,
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for I have already explained a great deal of that in the introduction to my Torah commentary — I will abbreviate it here without repeating it,
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and limit myself to clarifying what the language contains, as each difficulty arises.
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If one asks: what is the meaning of 'And now the Lord God has sent me and His spirit' (Is. 48:16)?
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We say: that holds if its meaning is 'with His spirit' — as 'Seek the Lord and His strength' (Ps. 105:4) is explained as 'Seek the Lord with His strength';
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and as 'The Lord will shine upon you and His glory will be seen over you' is explained by 'When the Lord builds Zion He will appear in His glory' (Ps. 102:17);
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and as 'The Lord and the weapons of His wrath' is explained by 'In wrath the earth trembles' (Hab. 3:12) — so its explanation here is: 'You chastised them with Your spirit, through Your prophets.'
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So whenever something like this comes up and we find for it a possible figure or interpretation, we are not obliged to do more than that.