I have already listed them and pointed to them, etc.: I roused the reader’s heart with proofs from the pesukim; and now he goes back and explains them at length.

Mercy and compassion: I explained the difference between them above.

And He will give you mercy, etc.: HaKadosh Baruch Hu will put into your heart the power of mercy toward others, and through this He, may He be blessed, will have mercy on you. So Chazal explained this pasuk, and they learned from it that whoever has mercy [on others] is shown mercy. We see, then, that He, may He be blessed, gives a share of His mercy to people.

The ways of a person’s benefit: in what ways He can benefit him.

Reason requires this: the mind compels that it is so.

The ways of mending, etc.: First he spoke of the beginning of his formation in the womb: in what ways it can take hold and a child be formed from it, and in what ways it can be spoiled and lost, so that nothing comes of it. After this he spoke of the time the child is in its mother’s womb: what harms can befall it there and damage it. After this he spoke of the time of his growing up, after he comes out of the womb: in what ways he can fall ill, and in what ways he can be healed of his illness.

An outward form: this is what is called in Hebrew a shape or a figure, as when you say that this vessel is round, or square, or three-cornered, and the like, in its body, or its handles, or its legs. This form is not part of the substance of the vessel’s material; it is only incidental, and can be changed into another shape as the craftsman sees fit to make it.

The root and the essential form: the root is the first matter, which in plain speech is called material; and the essential form is what brings the thing into being, in its essence, out of that first matter, and it is the essence of the thing as what it is. For the first matter is common to everything, and the form is what sets them apart, that this be gold and that silver, and so throughout all of existence.

They have no device and no ability, etc.: The word “device” is used for something that one cannot simply do by his own ability, but can contrive by a device to bring about; as, for example, trapping animals, which he cannot catch except by the device of spreading a net, into which the animal goes by itself. “Ability” is the name for a natural power that acts by nature, and it is the opposite of a device, which is an act of the mind that brings about an action indirectly. An ability can be without any mind at all, as one says of fire that it has the ability to burn and to heat, and of water to put out and to cool. Such powers exist in man too, such as the powers that serve a person’s nourishment, drawing it in and digesting it, etc., to which only the term ability applies, and not acting by will.

A person’s root and his form: these are what are called material and form, as above.

His makeup: this is the number of his limbs and sinews and the other parts of his body, and the powers of his soul, and how they stand toward one another.

And the order of his composition: both his joining as a whole, that is, the joining of his soul to his body, and the joining of his parts and how they are put together with one another.

What benefits him and what harms him: these are the particular sides of good and bad as they come about. After this he speaks of His conduct of him as a whole: that He, may He be blessed, leads him as a whole in the way that will be good for him in this world and the next; for example, for one it is good to live in wealth, and for another in poverty. This is what he says, “and what is good for him in his world and in his end.” For this he brings the pasuk, “I am Hashem your G-d, who teaches you for your benefit”: this is about the benefits of his particulars, each one in its time, as needed; and after this, about the conduct as a whole, it says, “who leads you in the way you should go.”

For the one whom [Hashem] loves, etc.: since the first pasuk does not prove that he speaks also of acts that appear bad, he brings this pasuk for that.

Strong: in His ability, more than any strong one.

And His word is decisive, etc.: His word, may He be blessed, that is, His promise in His command, is a thing cut and settled, never to be changed, more than the word of any person. Nigzar means “cut,” from the expression eretz gezeirah, which the Targum renders “a land cut off.”

Whatever [Hashem] wished, etc.: so He is strong in His ability to do whatever He wishes. And after this he brings the pasuk “So will My word be, etc.” for what is written, “and His word is decisive, etc.”

He does not leave them, and does not look away from them: He does not leave off doing good for them and benefiting them in their needs, and He does not look away from them, from saving them from what would harm them; as in “you may not look away” (Devarim 22:3), which is said of saving [one’s fellow] from the loss of a lost object.

From the smallest to [the greatest]: from a small matter of theirs, etc.

One thing [does not make Him forget] another: for of flesh and blood it may be said that being busy with one thing makes him forget another, since the power of his mind and thought is limited in measure, and so weariness comes upon them.

My way is hidden from Hashem: corresponding to what he wrote, “and not one of them is hidden from Him.” And corresponding to leaving them and looking away, it says, “and my cause passes by my G-d.” And corresponding to what he said, “one thing does not make Him forget another,” it says, “Do you not know, etc.; He does not tire and does not grow weary, etc.”: for His powers are not limited, and it cannot be said that because His mind grew weary with being busy with these things, other things were forgotten by Him, as though His mind were too small to hold them all.

A note: “Creator of the ends [of the earth]”: The reason it ascribes creation to the ends in particular is to say that His power, may He be blessed, is without end; therefore the nature of His works, may He be blessed, would also have to be without limit or measure, as the spiritual creations in fact are. But when it arose in His wisdom, may He be blessed, to bring into being a world with limits, He held back His power, may He be blessed, in His work, and set it in a measured amount; and this is a wondrous thing to those who understand. This is why it ends, “there is no searching out His understanding”: His understanding and knowledge, may He be blessed, cannot be searched out or their end found, for they are without end. And with this I have explained the pasuk “what I have wrought in Egypt” (Shemos 10:2), which Rashi, of blessed memory, avoided explaining as a word of deeds, because it is said in the reflexive form. But according to these words of ours, the holding back of His power, may He be blessed, is like a reflexive act, since He is without end, and so the reflexive form fits it well. And there the holding back is plainly seen, in that each plague was held back and limited so as to leave something over: as [what was left] from the pestilence for the hail, and from the hail for the locusts. Understand this, for it is very right.

Or another: just as he does not have the ability to benefit himself, so he does not have the ability to benefit another, except by the permission, etc.

For when a servant, etc.: he gives the reason why this belief, and the knowledge of this thing, is needed.

More able to benefit him, etc.: able to increase his benefit more than the others, etc.

From fearing them and from hoping in them: that he will not fear their harm and will not hope for their benefit.

Do not trust in nobles: the pasuk says it twice, corresponding to benefit and to harm. “Do not trust,” etc., to receive the benefit of their generosity; “in a son of man,” who cannot save from harm except by the permission of the Creator, may He be blessed. And this is exact in saying “who has no salvation”: that is, if he does save, the salvation is not ascribed to him but to the Creator, may He be blessed. The meaning is also that he “has no [salvation],” that is, even himself he cannot save. Both meanings are true and intended in it.

[How abundant is] His goodness, etc., to man: [that is, the kindness and the goodness] that come to a person, without the person being worthy of it before Him, may He be blessed, and not for the sake of any need of His, may He be blessed. Corresponding to the word “kindness,” which is good done freely, he said, “without his having been worthy of it”; and corresponding to the word “goodness,” by which He, may He be blessed, intends only the person’s good, he said, “and not out of any need, etc.”

A free gift, a goodness and a kindness: a free gift is the first stirring of the spirit of good will. Now, earlier he put kindness before goodness, since it comes first, before existence itself, and is the foundation of their building and of the coming into being of the creatures who receive the good, as it is written, “The world is built with kindness” (Tehillim 89:3). But in recognizing His kindness it is the reverse: through our receiving His good things we recognize His kindness; and therefore [here] he put goodness before kindness.

Many things You have done, etc.: many works You have done in order to be “Hashem my G-d,” that is, only for my good. And he makes his words clear by saying, “Your wonders and Your thoughts” are only “toward us,” that is, for our good; “none can be compared to You”: that is, they cannot be measured against You, to say that they were done according to some need You have of them, chas veshalom, as with flesh and blood, the amount of whose work matches his need of a thing, to fill his lack. And as for what it says, “Many things You have done, You,” etc.: the word “You” is extra, since the form of address already comes in “You have done.” The intent is that through His many works we have come to recognize His existence, may He be blessed, as is known. This is what it says: “Many things You have done,” etc.; from this we know that You are Hashem, G-d.

In substance and in circumstance: circumstances are things that are not of the essence of the substance that bears them, such as the color of anything.

In its amount and its kind: amount is the measure of a thing’s size; and kind is like the heat and the cold in the nature of every thing, and likewise dryness and moisture.

And whatever comes about, etc., that is what was decreed, etc.: as we find the thing to come about in fact, we know that it is certainly what was decreed at the outset of [His] knowledge; that is, that from the beginning the Creator, may He be blessed, knew that the thing would be so. And the words “that is what was decreed” mean: that is what was cut and allotted at the beginning of His thought, may He be blessed, to be in such a way.

Only, every decree, etc.: that is, if you will ask: since it was so decreed by Him, may He be blessed, why was it not so at the very start of its coming into being? For example, this almond: why was it first a blossom, and after that a bud, and after that almonds; why did the almonds not come into being from the start in the completeness in which they are found now? To this he said that His wisdom, may He be blessed, decreed that everything come into being through earlier causes, in the course of nature.