he saw God, while it was not so in reality: it was through the influence of the imaginative faculty. Moses, however, because the imaginative faculty had no influence whatsoever on his prophecy (for his prophecy was the outcome of the rational faculty that was in him, detached from the other corporeal faculties), said: ‘For man shall not see Me and live;’ and this is true. But Isaiah, because in his prophecy he also made use of the imaginative faculty, which our teachers of blessed memory call ‘the speculum which is not lucid,’[241] was led to err and to believe, through the imaginative faculty, that he had seen God. He himself made it manifest that this perception of his was erroneous, through the imaginative faculty, and explained that the cause thereof was that his body was not purified as the body of Moses our teacher; and that is the meaning of what he said: ‘Because I am a man of unclean lips.’[242] Nor were his qualities adequate; and that is the meaning of what he said: ‘And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.’[243] For through dwelling among people of bad traits, the qualities of the good man become corrupt. He therefore complained, and said: ‘Woe is me! for I am undone,’[244] as if he would say: ‘I was influenced by the imaginative faculty, and my prophecy is not through a lucid speculum like the prophecy of Moses who heard the voice speaking to him, without seeing any form before his eyes. But I, because my prophecy is through a speculum which is not lucid, that is by means of the imaginative faculty, I am not able to comprehend the speech without seeing the form that is speaking. This was caused by my being a man of unclean lips, and by my dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I therefore complain, and say: Woe is me! for I am undone. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, and I know that this is the result of the imaginative faculty; since there is no doubt that it is impossible for one who prophesies through the lucid speculum to attribute any form or likeness to Him, who is blessed, even in a prophetic vision.’ This is the meaning of what our sages of blessed memory said: ‘Manasseh slew Isaiah. Whereupon Raba says: He tried him and slew him. He said unto him: Thy master Moses said: For man shall not see Me and live, but thou didst say: And I saw the Lord.’[245] They have also remarked that he could have refuted this argument, but he did not reply, because he knew that Manasseh would not accept his answer. The answer that he could have given is that even concerning those that lived in the time of Moses it is written: ‘And they saw the God of Israel;’[246] here, too, because their perception was not through the lucid speculum. From all this it is manifest that it is not possible for a prophet of a lower rank to dissent from the words of one who is of a higher rank; but his words must be explained in such a manner that they are not at variance with the words of the greater prophet. Now, since it