(4)Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.

"This is my G d and I will extol Him": R. Eliezer says: Whence is it derived that a maid-servant beheld at the Red Sea what was not beheld by Ezekiel and the other prophets, of whom it is written (Hoshea 12:11) "And to the prophets I appeared (in various) guises," and (Ezekiel 1:1) "The heavens opened and I saw visions of G d"? An analogy: A king of flesh and blood comes to a province, a circle of guards around him, warriors at his right and at his left, armies before him and behind him — and all asking "Who is the king?" For he is flesh and blood as they are. But when the Holy One was revealed at the sea, there was no need for anyone to ask "Who is the King?" For when they saw Him, they knew Him, and they all opened and said "This is my G d, and I will extol Him ("ve'anvehu," lit.: "I will 'host' Him")!"

(7) Moses came and summoned the elders of the people and put before them all that the LORD had commanded him.(8)All the people answered as one, saying, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the people’s words to the LORD.(9) And the LORD said to Moses, “I will come to you in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.” Then Moses reported the people’s words to the LORD...(16) On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.(17) Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain.(18)Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for the LORD had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently.(19) The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.(20) The LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.(21) The LORD said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people not to break through to the LORD to gaze, lest many of them perish.

(9) But take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes and so that they do not fade from your mind as long as you live. And make them known to your children and to your children’s children:(10) The day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to Me, “Gather the people to Me that I may let them hear My words, in order that they may learn to revere Me as long as they live on earth, and may so teach their children.”(11) You came forward and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with flames to the very skies, dark with densest clouds.(12) The LORD spoke to you out of the fire; you heard the sound of words but perceived no shape—nothing but a voice.(13) He declared to you the covenant that He commanded you to observe, the Ten Commandments; and He inscribed them on two tablets of stone.(14) At the same time the LORD commanded me to impart to you laws and rules for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy.(15) For your own sake, therefore, be most careful—since you saw no shape when the LORD your God spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire—(16) not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever: the form of a man or a woman,(17) the form of any beast on earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky,(18) the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the waters below the earth.(19) And when you look up to the sky and behold the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, you must not be lured into bowing down to them or serving them. These the LORD your God allotted to other peoples everywhere under heaven;

And Moses entered into the mist": within the three partitions: darkness, cloud, and mist. Darkness, the outermost; cloud, within; mist, the innermost. As it is written "And Moses entered into the mist, where G-d was.

The matters concerning which a prophet is informed by vision of prophecy, are imparted to him allegorically, but the interpretation thereof is engraved upon his heart simultaneously with the vision and he knows what it means, as the vision of the ladder which Jacob our father saw: "The angels of God were ascending and descending upon it" (Gen. 28.12); which was a parable, the interpretation of which is the rise and fall of kingdoms, or as the Living Creatures which Ezekiel saw (Ezek. 1. 1–27), or the Seething Pot and the Almond Rod which Jeremiah saw (Jer. 1.12–13), or the Scroll of Parchment which Ezekiel saw (Ezek. 2.9), or the Measure which Zechariah saw (Zech. 2.5). And so with the rest of the prophets; some of them relate the parable and its interpretation as these; others relate the interpretation alone; and still others relate the parable only without the interpretation, as parts of the prophecies of Ezekiel and Zechariah, but all of them are prophesying in parables and metaphors.

(11) The word of the LORD came to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? I replied: I see a branch of an almond tree.(12) The LORD said to me: You have seen right, For I am watchful to bring My word to pass.

All the things hereinof spoken is the path of prophecy for all prophets, First and Last, save Moses our Master, the Master of all prophets. And what division is there between the prophecy of Moses and that of all the other prophets? All the other prophets prophesied while in a dream, or in a vision, but Moses our Master prophesied while awake and standing up, as it is said: "And when Moses went into the tent of meeting that He might speak with Him, then he heard the Voice speaking unto him" (Num. 7.89); all other prophets received it through an Angel, they therefore saw what they did see in the form of allegory and riddles, but Moses our Master did not receive it through an angel, for it is said: "With him do I speak mouth to mouth" (Ibid. 12.8), and it is also said: "and the Lord spoke unto Moses face to face" (Ex. 33.11); and it is further said: "And the similitude of the Lord doth he behold" (Num. 12.8); which is to say that there is no manner of parable, for he sees the matter in its clearness without riddle and without parable, which is as the Torah testifies concerning him: "Even manifestly, and not in dark speeches" (Ibid.);

(4) And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I will do what you do; my troops shall be your troops, my horses shall be your horses.”(5) But Jehoshaphat said further to the king of Israel, “Please, first inquire of the LORD.”(6) So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Shall I march upon Ramoth-gilead for battle, or shall I not?” “March,” they said, “and the Lord will deliver [it] into Your Majesty’s hands.”(7) Then Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there another prophet of the LORD here through whom we can inquire?”(8) And the king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is one more man through whom we can inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only misfortune—Micaiah son of Imlah.” But King Jehoshaphat said, “Don’t say that, Your Majesty.”(9) So the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”(10) The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were seated on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, on the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.(11) Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had provided himself with iron horns; and he said, “Thus said the LORD: With these you shall gore the Arameans till you make an end of them.”(12) And all the other prophets were prophesying similarly, “March upon Ramoth-gilead and triumph! The LORD will deliver it into Your Majesty’s hands.”(13) The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him: “Look, the words of the prophets are with one accord favorable to the king. Let your word be like that of the rest of them; speak a favorable word.”(14) “As the LORD lives,” Micaiah answered, “I will speak only what the LORD tells me.”

The Gemara asks: Perhaps Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, did not know this statement of Rabbi Yitzḥak, and therefore should not have been held responsible? The Gemara answers: Jehoshaphat, king of Judea, was there, and he said to them that they were false prophets, as it is written: “But Jehoshaphat said: Is there not here besides a prophet of the Lord, that we might inquire of him?” (I Kings 22:7). Ahab said to him: But aren’t there all these prophets here? Why seek others? Jehoshaphat said to Ahab: This is the tradition that I received from the house of the father of my father, the house of David: A prophetic vision relating to one and the same subject matter may appear to several prophets, but two prophets do not prophesy employing one and the same style of expression. They are false prophets, as they employed the same language when stating their prophecy.