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Chapter 2. Then I say: if the span of heaven is, to Him, approximately a handsbreadth — how could revelation from it be difficult for Him? If the breadth of the sea is, to Him, like the hollow of a hand — how could it be hard for Him to gather our scattered ones from it?
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If the soil of the earth is to Him like a measured thing — how could He not be able to bring us from its farthest reaches? If its mountains are to Him like something weighed — how could He not bring us near to His holy mountain?
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That is why, at the opening of these consolations, He says: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?"
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And all the nations before Him are like a drop from a bucket or the dust of a scale — can He not humble them before us? As it says: "Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales."
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And shaking the wicked from the earth — as we gather the edges of a garment and shake it — as it says: "To take hold of the corners of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it."
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I could have simply said: He who created things from nothing — that alone would suffice as an argument. But I elaborated on these meanings in the very way that He elaborated on them.
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It is therefore impermissible to entertain any thought that He does not know our situation, or that He is unjust or unmerciful — as it reprimanded us: "Why do you say, O Jacob, and declare, O Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and from my God my justice passes unnoticed?"
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Nor that He is unable to rescue us and answer our prayers — as it says: "Behold, the Lord's hand is not too short to save, nor His ear too heavy to hear." Nor that He
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— has abandoned and rejected us. Rather, as it says: "For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you…"
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So may God show us mercy — He whom we believe has set for our exile two timeframes: one, the time of repentance; the other, the appointed term. Whichever of the two arrives first, the Redemption becomes due.
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If our repentance is completed, the appointed term is irrelevant, and it will happen as the Torah says: "And it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you… and you return to the Lord your God… then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes…"
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And if we fall short of repentance, we will remain until the appointed time — some of us being punished and others being tried.
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This is as we know from the occurrence of every general calamity — at the turns of time, such as famine, sword, and plague — that some people are punished by them while others are tried.
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Even the Flood cannot have been without youths and children among them being tried and compensated. And just as we have no doubt that among our ancestors in Egypt there were many righteous ones who endured the ordeal until the appointed time was completed —
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— let no one say: if there were righteous ones among you, the Redemption would have come. For our masters and leaders, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, endured the enslavement for more than eighty years until the appointed time was completed — and many righteous ones were like them.