Rabbi Pinchas [said] in the name of Rabbi Tanchum bar Chanilai: Flesh and blood has a patron; enemies came and seized [the client] at the door of his patron’s courtyard. By the time he cried out to him, and by the time [the patron] came out, the sword had passed over his neck and killed him. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu saved Yehoshafat from the sword of Aram, as it is written, “And Yehoshafat cried out, and Hashem helped him, and G-d drew them away from him” (Divrei HaYamim II 18:31). This teaches that nothing was lacking but the cutting off of his head: “And G-d drew them away from him.”

Rabbi Ze’ira the son of Rabbi Abahu, [and] Rabbi Abahu in the name of Rabbi Elazar: “Fortunate is the one whose help is the G-d of Yaakov, etc.” (Tehillim 146:5). What is written after it? “Who makes heaven and earth, etc.” (Tehillim 146:6). What does one have to do with the other? Rather, [under] a king of flesh and blood, [a person] has a patron who rules in one province and does not rule in another province. Even if you say [he is] a kosmokrator [a ruler of the world]: he rules on dry land; does he rule at sea? But HaKadosh Baruch Hu rules at sea and rules on dry land; He saves at sea from the water, and on dry land from the fire. It is He who saved Moshe from the sword of Pharaoh, saved Yonah from the belly of the fish, Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah from the fiery furnace, [and] Daniel from the lions’ den. This is what is written, “Who makes heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, etc.” (Tehillim 146:6).