1 In the treatise before this one we discussed accurately two articles of the ten commandments: the one about not thinking that any other beings are absolute gods except God himself, and the other that commands us not to worship as God any object made with hands. And we also spoke of the laws that relate specially to each of these points. We will now go on to discuss the next three in order, again fitting suitable special laws to each. 2 And the first of these other commandments is not to take the name of God in vain; for the word of the virtuous man, says the law, shall be his oath, firm, unchangeable, which cannot lie, founded steadfastly on truth. And if particular necessities compel him to swear, he should take as witness to his oath the health or happy old age of his father or mother, if they are alive; or their memory, if they are dead. And, indeed, a man's parents are the copies and imitations of divine power, since they have brought into existence people who did not exist. 3 The law records one person, one of the patriarchs of the race and among those most admired for his wisdom, "as swearing by the face of his father," for the benefit, I imagine, of all who would live after him, and to give necessary instruction, so that posterity might honour their parents properly, loving them as benefactors and respecting them as rulers appointed by nature, and so might not rashly invoke the name of God. 4 Those men also deserve praise who, when compelled to swear, cause fear by their slowness, delay and evasion, not only in those who see them but also in those who invite them to take an oath; for when they do pronounce the oath they usually say only this much, "By the--;" or, "No, by the--;" without any further addition, giving these words emphasis by mutilating the usual form, but without uttering the express oath.⁠a 5 However, if a man must swear and is so inclined, let him add, if he wishes, not, indeed, the highest name of all, and the most important cause of all things, but the earth, the sun, the stars, the heaven, the universal world; for these things are all most worthy of being named, and are older than our own birth, and, moreover, they never grow old, lasting for ever and ever, according to the will of their Creator. 6 And some men are so casual and indifferent on the subject, that, passing over all created things, they dare in their ordinary conversation to rise up to the Creator and Father of the universe, without stopping to consider the place they are in, whether it is profane or sacred; or the time, whether it is suitable; or themselves, whether they are pure in body and soul; or the business, whether it is important; or the occasion, whether it is necessary; but (as the proverb says), they pollute everything with unwashed feet, as if, since nature has given them a tongue, it were decent for them to let it loose, unrestrained and unbridled, to approach things it is impious to approach. 7 They ought rather to use that most excellent of all the organs by which voice and speech (the most useful things in human life, and the causes of all communion among men) are made distinct and articulate, in a way that contributes to the honour, and dignity, and blessing of the great Cause of all things. 8 But as it is, out of their excessive impiety, they use the most awful names in speaking of the most unimportant matters, and heaping name upon name in a perfect crowd, they feel no shame, thinking that by the frequency and number of their uninterrupted oaths they will achieve what they desire, and they are very foolish to think so; for a great number of oaths is no proof of credibility, but rather, in the opinion of men of sense and wisdom, a proof of a man's unworthiness to be believed. 9 But if anyone who is compelled to swear swears by anything at all in a way the law does not forbid, let him exert himself with all his strength and by every means in his power to give effect to his oath, putting no obstacle in the way of accomplishing what has been ratified in this way, especially if neither implacable anger nor frenzied love nor unrestrained appetites agitate the mind, so that it does not know what is said or done, but the oath has been taken with sober reason and deliberate purpose. 10 For what is better than to speak with perfect truth throughout one's whole life, and to prove this by the evidence of God himself? For an oath is nothing other than the testimony of God invoked in a matter of doubt, and to invoke God to witness a statement which is not true is the most impious of all things. 11 For a man who does this is all but saying in plain words (even though he stays silent), "I am using you as a veil for my iniquity; co-operate with me, since I am ashamed to be seen openly behaving unjustly. For though I am doing wrong, I am anxious not to be thought wicked, but you can be indifferent to your reputation with the multitude, having no concern for being well spoken of." But to say or imagine such things as these is most impious, for not only God, who has no part whatever in wickedness, but even any father or any stranger, provided he was not utterly devoid of all virtue, would be indignant at being addressed like this. 12 A man, therefore, as I have said, must be sure to give effect to all oaths taken for honourable and desirable objects, for the due establishment of important private or public matters, under the guidance of wisdom, and justice, and holiness. And this kind of oath includes the most lawful vows, those offered up because of an abundance of blessings, either present or expected; but if any vows are made for contrary objects, it is not holy to ratify them, 13 for there are some men who swear, if chance so prompts them, to commit theft, or sacrilege, or adultery, or rape, or to inflict wounds or slaughter, or any similar acts of wickedness, and who carry them out without any delay, pleading as their excuse that they must keep their oaths, as if it were not better and more acceptable to God to do no iniquity, than to fulfil a vow and oath like that. The national laws and ancient ordinances of every people are established for the sake of justice and of every virtue, and what else are laws and ordinances but the sacred words of nature, which have authority and power in themselves, so that they differ in no way from oaths? 14 And let every man who commits wicked actions because he is bound by an oath to do so realise that he is not keeping his oath but rather violating one that deserves great care and attention to preserve, one that sets a seal, as it were, on what is honourable and just, for he is adding wickedness to wickedness, adding lawless actions to oaths taken on improper occasions, which would better have been buried in silence. 15 Let such a man, therefore, abstain from committing iniquity, and seek to propitiate God, so that he may grant him the mercy of the humane power innate in him, so as to pardon him for the oaths which he took in his folly. For it is incurable madness and insanity for him to take a twofold evil upon himself when he could put off half its burden. 16 But some men, out of an excess of wicked hatred for their own species, being naturally unsociable and inhuman, or else driven by anger as by a harsh mistress, think they can confirm the savagery of their natural disposition by an oath, swearing that they will not let this man or that man sit at the same table with them, or come under the same roof; or, again, that they will not give such a person any help, or accept any from him as long as he lives. And sometimes even after the death of their enemy, they keep up their irreconcilable hostility, not allowing their friends to pay the customary honours even to the dead body in the grave. 17 I would advise such men, as I advised those I mentioned before, to seek to win the mercy of God by prayers and sacrifices, so that they may find some cure for the diseases of their souls which no human being is able to heal. 18 There are others, too, boastful and puffed up with pride and arrogance, who, insatiably greedy for glory, are determined to obey none of the precepts that point to that most beneficial virtue, frugality; and if anyone urges it on them, to persuade them to shake off the stubborn impulsiveness of their appetites, they treat every warning as an insult and rush headlong into every kind of effeminate luxury, despising those who seek to correct them, and joking about and ridiculing all the honourable and useful advice of wisdom. 19 And if such men happen to have an abundance and surplus of the means of living, they swear outright that they will spare no imaginable expense on the use and enjoyment of costly luxury. For instance, a man who has recently come into considerable riches embraces a prodigal and extravagant course of life; and when some old man, some relation perhaps, or some friend of his father, comes and warns him, urging him to change his ways and take up a more honourable and disciplined way of life, he is indignant beyond all measure at the advice, and, stubborn and quarrelsome by disposition, swears that as long as he has the means and resources necessary for supplying his wants he will not practise a single habit that leads to economy or moderation, either in the city or in the country, either travelling by sea or by land, but that he will at all times and in all places show how rich and liberal he is; but in my view such conduct is not so much a display of riches as of insolence and intemperance. 20 And yet many men who have held positions of great authority in the past, and many who hold them now, though they have most abundant resources of all kinds, and enormous riches, wealth flowing to them continually and without interruption as if from some unceasing spring, nevertheless at times turn to the same things that we poor men use, to earthenware cups, and small cheap loaves, and olives, or cheese, or vegetables, to season their dinners; and in summer put on a belt and a linen garment, and in winter any sound, sturdy cloak, and sleep on a bed made on the ground, gladly discarding couches made of ivory or worked in tortoiseshell and gold, and variously embroidered coverlets, and rich clothes and purple dyes, and the luxury of sweet and elaborate confectionery, and costly dishes; 21 and the reason for this conduct is not only that they are virtuous and abstemious by nature, but also that they have enjoyed a good education from their earliest youth, which has taught them to honour what belongs to man rather than what belongs to authority, and which, once settled permanently in the soul, reminds it, I might almost say, every day of its humanity, drawing it down from lofty and arrogant thoughts, and bringing it back within proper limits, and correcting whatever is unequal by introducing equality. 22 Therefore such men fill their cities with vigour and abundance, and with good laws and peace, depriving them of nothing good, but providing them with every needed blessing without limit or stint; for conduct and actions like these are the achievements of truly noble men, and of men who may truly be called governors. 23 But it is otherwise with the actions of the newly rich, of men who by some blunder of fortune have come into great wealth, who have no notion, not even in their dreams, of the wealth that is genuine and truly has sight, the wealth that consists of the perfect virtues, and of actions in accordance with such virtues, but who stumble into the wealth that is blind, and, leaning on it and so necessarily missing the right road, turn onto one that is no road at all, prizing things that deserve no honour at all, and ridiculing things that are honourable by nature; these are the men whom the word of God rebukes and reproaches severely for bringing in oaths on unfitting occasions; for such men are hard to purify and hard to cure, so much so that they are not thought to deserve pardon even by God, who is all-merciful by nature. 24 But the law takes from virgins and from married women the power to make vows on their own, declaring the parents of the first and the husbands of the second to be their lords, and declaring that the power to confirm or disavow their oaths belongs in the first case to the father and in the second to the husband. And very reasonably, for the first, because of their youth, are not aware of the importance of oaths, so that they need the advice of others to judge for them; while the second often, out of an easygoing disposition, take oaths that are not in the interest of their husbands, and for this reason the law invests the husbands and fathers with authority either to ratify their oaths or to declare them void. 25 And do not let widows swear thoughtlessly, for they have no one who can plead to release them from their oaths; neither husbands, from whom they are now separated, nor fathers, whose houses they left when they departed from home to be married, since their oaths must inevitably stand as confirmed, because no one is there to look after the interests of those who swore them. 26 But if anyone knows that someone else is breaking his oath, and does not inform on him or convict him, because he is swayed by friendship, or respect, or fear, rather than by piety, he shall be liable to the same punishment as the perjured person; for assenting to someone who does wrong is no different from doing wrong oneself. 27 Perjurers are punished in some cases by God and in others by men; but the punishments that come from God are the most fearful and the most severe, for God shows no mercy to men who commit such impiety, but leaves them unpurified for ever, and in my opinion with great justice and propriety, for the man who despises such important matters cannot complain if he is despised in turn, receiving a fate that matches his actions. 28 But the punishments inflicted by men are of various kinds, either death or scourging: those who are more excellent and stricter in their piety put such offenders to death, while those of milder disposition scourge them publicly with rods in the sight of all men; and to men who are not abject and slavish by disposition, scourging is a punishment no less terrible than death. 29 These, then, are the ordinances contained in the explicit wording of these commandments; but there is also an allegorical meaning concealed beneath them, which we must draw out by carefully considering the figurative expressions used. We must recognise, then, that the correct principles of nature treat the power of the father and the power of the husband as equal, though in different respects. The husband has his power because he sows the seed of the virtues in the soul, as in a fertile field; the father has his because it is his natural role to implant good counsels in the minds of his children, and to stimulate them to honourable and virtuous actions; and because, having done so, he nurtures them with the wholesome doctrines that education and wisdom supply; 30 and the mind is compared at one time to a virgin, at another to a widow, and again to a woman still united to a husband. It is compared to a virgin when it keeps itself pure and undefiled, free from the influence of pleasures and appetites, and likewise from pains and fears, those treacherous passions, and then the father who fathered it keeps charge of it; and, as with a virtuous wife, once she is united to pure reason in accordance with virtue, her guiding principle will take proper care to defend her, implanting in her, like a husband, the most excellent conceptions. 31 But the soul that is deprived of the wisdom and guardianship of a parent, and of union with right reason, widowed of her most excellent defences, and abandoned by wisdom, must, if it has chosen a life open to reproach, be bound by its own conduct, since it has no reason in accordance with wisdom to act as intercessor and relieve her of the consequences of her sins, neither a husband living with her nor a father who fathered her. 32 But in the case of people who have vowed not only their property or some part of it but their very selves, the law has set a price on their vows, without regard to their beauty, or their importance, or anything of that kind, but according to the number of the individuals, separating the men from the women and the infants from those who are fully grown. 33 For the law ordains that from twenty to sixty years of age the price of a man shall be two hundred drachmas in solid silver, and the price of a woman a hundred and twenty drachmas. From five to twenty years of age, the price of a male child is eighty drachmas, and the price of a female child forty. And from infancy to five years old, the price of a male is twenty drachmas, and the price of a female child twelve. And in the case of men who have lived beyond sixty years of age, the ransom for an old man is sixty drachmas, and for an old woman forty. 34 And the law has set this ransom by the same ages for men and for women, for three very important reasons. First, because the vow carries equal and like weight, whether it is made by a person of great or of little importance. Secondly, because it is fitting that those who have made a vow should not be treated like slaves; for slaves are valued at a high or a low price according to whether their bodies are in good condition and beautiful, or the opposite. Third, and most important of all, because inequality is valued among men, but equality is honoured by God. 35 These are the ordinances concerning people; about animals the following commands are given. If anyone sets apart an animal, and it is a clean animal of one of the three kinds suited to sacrifice, namely an ox, a sheep or a goat, he shall surely sacrifice it, not substituting either a worse animal for a better, or a better for a worse. For God does not take delight in the fleshiness or fatness of animals, but in the blameless disposition of the man who has vowed it. But if he makes a substitution, he must sacrifice two instead of one: both the animal he originally vowed and the one he wanted to substitute for it. 36 But if anyone vows one of the unclean animals, he is to bring it to the most venerable of the priests, and he is to value it, not inflating its price, but adding one-fifth to its exact value, so that if a clean animal has to be sacrificed in its place, the sacrifice does not fall short of its proper value. This is also ordained to make the man who vowed it regret having made a thoughtless vow in vowing an animal that is not clean, having regarded it, in my opinion, as clean for the moment, led astray by an error of mind through some passion. 37 And if what he has vowed is his house, he must again have the priest value it. But those who happen to buy it shall not pay the same ransom for it; but if the man who has vowed it chooses to ransom it, he shall pay its price and a fifth more, punishing his own rashness and impetuous desire for his two faults: his rashness for making the vow, and his impetuous desire for wanting back things he had already given up. But if anyone else buys it he shall not pay more than its value. 38 And do not let the man who has made the vow delay long, either in fulfilling his vow or in having it properly valued. For it is absurd to insist on strict covenants with men, but to regard agreements made with God, who needs nothing and lacks nothing, as not needing to be kept, while those who do so convict themselves by their delays and slowness of the greatest of offences, namely, neglect of him whose service they ought to look upon as the beginning and end of all happiness. That is enough about oaths and vows. 39 The next commandment concerns the sacred seventh day, which includes an infinite number of very important festivals. For instance, there is the release, every seventh year, of men who were born free but have become slaves through some unforeseen necessity of the times. Again, there is the humanity of creditors towards their debtors, as they forgive their countrymen their debts every seventh year. There is also the rest given to fertile land, whether on the plain or in the mountains, which also takes place every seventh year. Moreover, there are the ordinances established for the fiftieth year. And the bare account of all these things (without looking for any inner and figurative meaning) is enough to lead those who are well disposed to perfect virtue, and to make even those who are obstinate and stubborn in their dispositions more docile and tractable. 40 We have already spoken at some length about the virtue of the number seven, explaining its nature in relation to the number ten, and also its connection to the decade itself, and also to the number four, which is the foundation and the source of the decade. And, compounded in regular order from the unit, it produces in regular order the perfect number twenty-eight; being multiplied according to a regular proportion equal in all its parts, it makes at last both a cube and a square. I also showed that an infinite number of beauties can be drawn from careful contemplation of it, which there is no need to dwell on now. But we must examine each of the particular matters before us that are included in this one, beginning with the first. The first matter to consider is the Festivals. 41 There are ten festivals, as the law sets them down. The first is one that anyone will perhaps be astonished to hear called a festival. This festival is every day. The second festival is the seventh day, which the Hebrews in their native language call the sabbath. The third is the one that comes after the conjunction, which happens on the day of the new moon in each month. The fourth is the festival of the crossing, which is called the passover. The fifth is the first fruits of the grain--the sacred sheaf. The sixth is the feast of unleavened bread, after which is celebrated the festival that is really the seventh day of seventh days. The eighth is the festival of the sacred month, or the feast of trumpets. The ninth is the fast. The tenth is the feast of tabernacles, which is the last of all the annual festivals, completing the perfect number ten. We must now begin with the first festival. THE FIRST FESTIVAL 42 The law sets down every day as a festival, adapting itself to an irreproachable life, as if men continually obeyed nature and her injunctions. And if wickedness did not prosper, subduing by its predominant influence all reasoning about what might be expedient and driving it out of the soul of each individual, but if all the powers of the virtues remained in all respects unsubdued, then the whole time from a man's birth to his death would be one uninterrupted festival, and every house and every city would live in continual fearlessness and peace, full of every imaginable blessing and enjoying perfect tranquillity. 43 But as things are, covetousness and the cycle of mutual hostility and retaliation, by which men and women are continually plotting against one another, and even against themselves, have destroyed the continuity of cheerfulness and happiness. And the proof of what I have just said is plain for all to see; 44 for all those, whether Greeks or barbarians, who practise wisdom, living in a blameless and irreproachable manner, resolved not to do any injustice, nor even to retaliate when injustice is done to them, shunning all association with busy-bodies, in all the cities which they inhabit, avoid all courts of justice, and council halls, and market-places, and places of assembly, and, in short, every place where any band or crowd of rash, headstrong men gathers, 45 prizing, as it were, a life of peace and tranquillity, as the most devoted contemplators of nature and of all the things in it. They investigate earth and sea, and the air, and the heaven, and all the different natures in each of them; and they dwell, so to speak, in their minds at least, with the moon, and the sun, and the whole company of the rest of the stars, both planets and fixed stars. Their bodies are indeed firmly planted on the earth, but their souls are furnished with wings, so that, hovering in the air, they may closely survey all the powers above, regarding them as truly the most excellent of cosmopolites, who consider the whole world as their native city, and all the devotees of wisdom as their fellow citizens, virtue herself having enrolled them as such, she to whom the framing of a constitution for their common city has been entrusted. 46 They are, therefore, full of all kinds of excellence, accustomed to disregard all those good things which affect the body and external circumstances, inured to regarding things indifferent as truly indifferent, armed by study against the pleasures and appetites, and, in short, always labouring to raise themselves above the passions, trained to exert all their power to pull down the fortification which those appetites have built up, and unmoved by any impression the attacks of fortune might make on them, because they have previously estimated the power of its attacks in their anticipations (for anticipation makes even those things light which would be most terrible if unexpected), for in this way their minds reckon that nothing that happens is wholly strange, and perceive everything faintly, as old and somewhat blunted. These men, quite naturally made cheerful by their virtues, pass the whole of their lives as a festival. 47 These men, however, are therefore only a small number, kindling a sort of spark of wisdom in their various cities so that virtue may not be utterly extinguished and so entirely rooted out of our race. 48 But if men everywhere agreed with this small number, and all became, as nature originally intended, blameless and irreproachable, lovers of wisdom, delighting in all that is virtuous and honourable, thinking that, and that alone, to be good, and regarding everything else as subordinate and as slaves, with themselves as their masters, then all the cities would be full of happiness, wholly free from everything that causes pain or fear, and full of everything that produces joy and cheerfulness. So no time would ever cease to be a time of happy life, and the whole circle of the year would be one festival. 49 So, if truth is the judge, no wicked or worthless man can keep a festival, not even for the briefest period, since he must be continually pained by the consciousness of his own iniquities, even though, with his soul, and his voice, and his face, he may pretend to smile; for how can a man who is full of the most evil counsels, and who lives with folly, have any time of genuine joy? He is in every respect unfortunate and miserable, in his tongue, and his belly, and all his other members, 50 since he uses the first for the utterance of things which ought to be secret and buried in silence, and out of gluttony he fills the second with abundant strong wine and immoderate quantities of food, and the rest of his members he uses for the indulgence of unlawful desires and illicit connections, not only seeking to violate the marriage bed of others, but lusting unnaturally, and seeking to deface the manly character of the nature of man and change it into a womanlike appearance, to gratify his own polluted and accursed passions. 51 For this reason the all-great Moses, seeing the surpassing beauty of the real festival, regarded it as too perfect for human nature and dedicated it to God himself, saying in these very words: "The feast of the Lord." 52 Considering the melancholy and fearful condition of the human race, and how full it is of innumerable evils, which the covetousness of the soul begets, which the defects of the body produce, and which all the inequalities of the soul inflict upon us, and which the retaliations of those among whom we live, both doing and suffering innumerable evils, are continually causing us, he wondered whether anyone tossed about in such a sea of troubles, some brought on deliberately and others unintentionally, and never being able to rest in peace nor to cast anchor in the safe haven of a life free from danger, could possibly keep a real feast, not one in name only, but one that truly is a feast, enjoying himself and being happy in the contemplation of the world and all the things in it, and in obedience to nature, and in a perfect harmony between his words and his actions, between his actions and his words. 53 For this reason he necessarily said that the feasts belonged to God alone; for he alone is happy and blessed, having no participation in any evil whatever, but being full of all perfect blessings. Or rather, to tell the exact truth, he is himself the good, who has showered all particular good things over heaven and earth. 54 With this in view, a certain pre-eminently virtuous mind among the people of old, when all its passions were tranquil, smiled, full of joy and completely penetrated by it, and, asking itself whether rejoicing might not be an attribute belonging to God alone, and whether it might itself miss this joy by pursuing what men think delights, grew fearful, and denied the laughter of her soul until she was comforted. 55 For the merciful God lightened her fear, telling her through his holy word to confess that she did laugh, in order to teach us that the creature is not wholly and entirely deprived of joy; but that the unmingled and purest joy, which can receive nothing of an opposite nature, is the chosen joy that belongs to God alone. But the joy that flows from it is mingled and alloyed, the joy of a man who is already wise, and who has received as the most valuable gift possible a mixture in which the pleasant ingredients far outnumber the unpleasant. That is enough on this subject. THE SECOND FESTIVAL 56 But after this continuous, uninterrupted festival that lasts through all time, another is celebrated, the sacred seventh day, after each recurring interval of six days, which some have named the virgin, in view of its surpassing sanctity and purity. Others have called it the motherless, as being produced by the Father of the universe alone, as an instance of the male kind with no share in the female sex; for the number seven is a most brave and valiant number, well adapted by nature for government and authority. Some, again, have called it the occasion, inferring that part of its essence which only the intellect can grasp from the objects perceptible to their outward senses. 57 For the best of the objects of the external senses, the things by which the seasons of the year and the revolutions of time are brought to perfection in their appointed order, share in the number seven. I mean that there are seven planets; that the stars of the Bear are seven, that the Pleiads are seven, and so with the revolutions of the moon as it waxes and wanes, and the orderly well-regulated circuits of the other bodies, whose beauty is beyond all description. 58 But Moses, for a most honourable reason, called it consummation and perfection; attributing to the number six the origination of all the parts of the world, and to the number seven their perfection; for the number six is an odd-even number, made up of twice three, with the odd number as the male and the even number as the female, and from their union production takes place in accordance with the unalterable laws of nature. 59 But the number seven is free from all such commixture, and is, if one must speak plainly, the light of the number six; for what the number six engendered, the number seven displayed when brought to perfection. For this reason it may properly be called the birthday of the world, as the day on which the work of the Father, shown to be perfect with all its parts perfect, was commanded to rest and abstain from all works. 60 This does not mean that the law advises idleness, for it always accustoms its followers to submit to hardships and trains them to labour, and it hates those who desire to be indolent and idle; at all events, it expressly commands us to labour diligently for six days, but to give some relief from uninterrupted and incessant toil, it refreshes the body with exactly measured seasons of moderate relaxation, so as to renew it for fresh work. For those who catch their breath in this way, and I am speaking not only of private individuals but even of athletes, gather fresh strength, and with more vigorous power, without flinching and with great endurance, take on everything that must be done. 61 And the works meant are those required by precepts and doctrines that accord with virtue. And on that day he urges us to apply ourselves to philosophy, improving our souls and the dominant part of us, our mind. 62 Accordingly, on the seventh day, in every city, innumerable lessons in prudence, and temperance, and courage, and justice, and all the other virtues are set before the people; while they are given, the common people sit in silence, pricking up their ears, with all possible attention, out of thirst for wholesome instruction, while some of the most learned explain to them what is of great importance and use, lessons by which the whole of their lives may be improved. 63 Among all the innumerable particular lessons and doctrines there are, we may say, two supremely important heads: the regulating of one's conduct towards God by the rules of piety and holiness, and of one's conduct towards men by the rules of humanity and justice; each of which is subdivided into a great number of subordinate ideas, all praiseworthy. 64 From these considerations it is plain that Moses never leaves idle those who submit to being guided by his sacred admonitions; but since we are composed of both soul and body, he has allotted to the body the work suited to it, and to the soul the tasks good for it. And he has taken care that the one shall succeed the other, so that while the body is labouring the soul may be at rest, and when the body is enjoying relaxation the soul may be labouring; and so the best lives, the contemplative and the active, succeed one another in regular alternation. The active life has received the number six, according to the service appointed for the body, and the contemplative life the number seven, as tending to knowledge and to the perfecting of the intellect. 65 It is also forbidden on this day to kindle a fire, since fire is the beginning and seed of all the business of life; since without fire it is not possible to make any of the things which are indispensably necessary for life, so that men, without this one element, the highest and most ancient of all, are cut off from all works and the practice of the arts, especially from all handicraft trades, and also from all particular services. 66 But it seems likely that it was on account of those who were less obedient, and who were the least inclined to attend to what was done, that Moses gave additional laws, thinking it right not only that the free should abstain from all works on the seventh day, but also that their servants and maidservants should have a respite from their tasks, proclaiming a day of freedom to them also after every six days, in order to teach both classes this most admirable lesson; 67 so that the masters would grow used to doing some things with their own hands, without waiting for the services and ministrations of their servants, so that if any unforeseen necessities came upon them, according to the changes which take place in human affairs, they would not, being wholly unaccustomed to doing anything for themselves, lose heart at what they had to do, but, finding the various parts of the body active and handy, could work with ease and cheerfulness; and to teach the servants not to despair of better prospects, but, having a relaxation every six days as a kind of spark and kindling of freedom, to look forward to complete relaxation in the future, if they continued faithful and attached to their masters. 68 And when free men at times submit to the tasks of servants, and servants enjoy a respite and holiday, the life of mankind will advance and improve towards perfect virtue, as they are thus reminded of the principles of equality and repay each other with necessary services, both those of high and those of obscure rank. 69 But on the seventh day the law has given rest not only to servants but also to the cattle. And yet by nature the servants are born free; for no man is by nature a slave. But other animals are expressly made for the use and service of man, and are therefore ranked as slaves; yet those that must bear burdens and endure toil and labour on behalf of their owners all find a respite on the seventh day. 70 And why should I mention further details? The ox, the animal born for the most important and most useful of all the purposes of life, namely the plough when the earth is already prepared for seed, and again the threshing that cleans the crop when the sheaves are brought into the barn, is unharnessed on this day, keeping as a festival the day that is the birthday of the year. And thus its holiness pervades everything and affects every creature. 71 And Moses thinks the number seven worthy of such reverence that he honours everything else that has any share in it at all; at any rate, every seventh year he ordains a remission of debts, helping the poor and inviting the rich to show humanity, so that by giving from their abundance to those in need they may also look forward to receiving help from them if any disaster happens to them. For the accidents of human life are many, and life does not always lie at anchor on the same seabed, but tends to change like a fickle wind that blows in different directions at different times. 72 It is good, therefore, for the kindness the creditors show to extend to all the debtors. But since not all men are naturally inclined to magnanimity, and some are slaves of money or perhaps not very rich, the law has ordained that they should contribute what they can part with without inconvenience. 73 For while it does not permit them to lend at interest to their fellow countrymen, it has allowed them to receive interest from foreigners; very aptly calling the former their brothers, so that no one may begrudge giving of his possessions to those who are, as it were, his co-heirs by nature; and it calls those who are not their fellow countrymen strangers, which is quite natural. For being a stranger means that a person has no right to share in anything, unless someone, out of an excess of virtue, treats even those in the condition of strangers as kin and relatives, because he was brought up in a virtuous society and under virtuous laws that regard only what is virtuous as good. 74 But lending at interest is blameworthy; for a man who borrows at interest does not have abundant means of living, but is clearly in some need; and he is compelled to pay the interest as well as the principal, and so in the end he necessarily becomes very poor; and while he thinks he is gaining an advantage, he is in reality being harmed, just as foolish animals are when they are deceived by bait set before them. 75 But I would say to such people, "You who lend at interest, why do you try to disguise your unsociable nature behind a show of good fellowship? And why do you pretend in words to be humane and considerate, while in your actions you show a lack of humanity and a terrible hardness of heart, exacting more than you gave, and sometimes even doubling your original loan, so as to turn the poor man into an outright beggar? 76 So no one sympathises with you in your distress when, having tried to get more, you fail and also lose even what you had before. On the contrary, everyone is glad at your misfortunes, calling you a usurer and a skinflint and all kinds of names like those, and regarding you as one who lies in wait for human misfortunes and counts the misfortunes of others as his own prosperity." 77 But, as some have said, wickedness is a most laborious thing; and the man who lends at interest is blind, not seeing the time of repayment, when he will barely receive, or perhaps not receive at all, what he had hoped in his covetousness to gain. 78 Let such a man pay the penalty for his avarice by not getting back what he spent in order to profit from the misfortunes of men, drawing an income from improper sources. But let the debtors be granted the humanity the law enjoins, paying back not their loans with usurious interest on them, but merely the original sum lent. For in their turn, at the proper time, they will give the same help to those who helped them, repaying those who set the example of kindness with equal services. 79 Having given these commandments, Moses goes on in due order to lay down a law full of all gentleness and humanity. "If," says this law, "one of your brothers is sold to you, let him serve you for six years; and in the seventh year let him be set free without any payment." 80 Here again Moses calls their fellow countrymen their brothers, using this name to implant in the soul of the owner a sense of kinship with his servant, so that he may not neglect him as a stranger to whom he has no bond of goodwill. Rather, the aim is that, yielding to affection for him as a relative because of the lesson the holy scripture suggests in this way, he may not feel indignant when his servant is about to recover his freedom. 81 For such men happen to be called slaves (douloi), but in reality they are only servants (thētes), serving their masters to meet their needs. And even if they had given their masters absolute power and authority over them a thousand times over, 82 their masters should still be gentle to them, mindful of these beautiful injunctions of the law. My good man, the one called a slave is a hireling, and he too is a man, with the most sublime kinship to you, since he is of the same nation as you; perhaps he is even of the same tribe and the same borough as you, and has now been reduced to this condition by poverty. 83 So cast out of your soul that treacherous evil, insolence, and treat him as a hireling, giving some things and receiving others. Then he will perform the services due to you with all energy and cheerfulness, at all times and in all places, never delaying, but anticipating your commands by his speed and willingness. And you, in return, provide him with food and clothing, and take all other necessary care of him; not yoking him to the plough like a brute beast, and not oppressing him with heavy burdens beyond his power to bear, nor treating him with insolence, nor reducing him to painful despondency by threats and the infliction of punishment; but giving him proper relaxation and well-regulated periods of rest; for the precept, "Let nothing be too much," applies to every case, and especially to the conduct of masters toward their servants. 84 So when he has served you for a fully sufficient time, six years, and the seventh year, the most sacred number, is about to arrive, let him who is free by nature depart in freedom; and grant him this kindness, my good man, not hesitantly but joyfully, because you now have an opportunity of doing a service to man, that most excellent of all animals, in the most important of all matters; for there is no greater blessing for a slave than freedom. 85 So set him free joyfully, and also give him a present from your own property, from each part of your possessions, giving the one who has served you faithfully the means to support himself on his journey. For it will be to your credit if he leaves your house not in poverty but with a plentiful supply for all his needs, so that he does not, through need, fall again into his previous calamity, namely slavery, compelled to sell himself for lack of daily food, and your kindness is lost. This, then, is enough about the poor. 86 Next, Moses commands the people to leave the land fallow and untilled every seventh year, for many reasons; first of all, so that they may honour the number seven in each period, of days, months and years; for every seventh day, which the Hebrews call the sabbath, is sacred; and the seventh month in every year has the greatest of the festivals allotted to it, so it is very natural that the seventh year also shares in the veneration paid to this number and receives special honour. 87 And the second reason is this, "Do not be," says the lawgiver, "wholly devoted to gain, but even willingly submit to some loss," so that you may bear involuntary calamity with greater indifference if it ever falls on you, and not grieve and despair as if at something new and strange; for some rich men are so unfortunate in their dispositions that, when poverty comes upon them, they groan and despair no less than they would if they were deprived of all their substance. 88 But all the true disciples among the followers of Moses, trained in good laws, are accustomed from their earliest years to bear scarcity patiently through the custom of leaving their fertile land fallow; and they are also taught magnanimity and, one might almost say, to let revenues that are admittedly certain slip deliberately out of their hands. 89 The third reason, it seems to me, is one hinted at somewhat figuratively: to show that it is not fitting for anyone at all to weigh down and oppress men with burdens; for if one is to allow a period of rest to parts of the earth, which by nature cannot feel pleasure or pain, how much more must men be entitled to a similar relaxation, since they have not only the outward senses they share with the brute beasts, but also the special gift of reason, through which the pain arising from toil and fatigue is imprinted more vividly on their imaginations? 90 So stop imposing harsh and intolerable commands on your slaves, you who are called masters, commands that break the strength of the body by their compulsion and make the soul faint even before the body does; 91 for there is no objection to your exercising moderate authority, giving orders by which you will receive the services you are entitled to and which your servants will cheerfully carry out; and then they will not discharge their duties for only a short time, as if exhausted early and, to tell the truth, brought to old age before their time by their labours; but like athletes who keep their youthful vigour for a long time, who do not grow fat and corpulent but are used to training themselves through exertion and sweat, so as to be able to acquire what is necessary and useful for life. 92 Let the governors of cities also stop oppressing them with continual and excessive taxes and tributes, filling their own coffers with money and hoarding like treasure the mean-spirited vices that defile their whole lives; 93 for they deliberately choose the most pitiless of men as collectors of their revenues, people full of every kind of inhumanity, giving them abundant opportunity for the exercise of their covetousness; and these men, besides their own innate severity of temper, receive free license from the commands of their masters, and, determined to do everything to please them, practise the harshest measures they can imagine, with no notion of gentleness or humanity, not even in their dreams; 94 so they throw everything into disorder and confusion, levying their exactions not only on the possessions of the citizens but also on their persons, with insults and violence and newly invented, unprecedented tortures. And I have heard before now of some who, in their ferocity and unequalled fury, did not spare even the dead, but were so brutal as to go so far as to beat the corpses with goads; 95 and when someone blamed their brutality, because not even death, that relief and true end of all miseries, could save their victims from being insulted by them, and instead of a grave and the customary funeral rites they were exposed to continued insult, they made a defence even worse than the accusation brought against them, saying that they insulted the dead not to abuse the dumb and senseless dust, since there was nothing to gain from that, but to make those closely connected with them by ties of blood or friendship feel compassion for them, and so induce them to pay a ransom for their bodies, doing them the last service in their power. 96 Then, you most worthless of all men! I would say to them, Have you not first learned what you are now teaching? Or do you know how to move other people to compassion even by the most inhuman actions, and yet have you rooted out all merciful and humane feelings from your own souls? And do you act this way although you do not lack good advisers, and especially our laws, which have released even the earth from its yearly burdens, giving it a relaxation and a respite? 97 and the earth, though it seems to be inanimate, is nevertheless fully ready to repay and return favours, hurrying to pay back any gift it has received; for since it receives an exemption every seventh year and is not forced to exert itself that year, but is set wholly free for the whole circle of the year, in the following year its great productiveness yields crops double, or sometimes many times, larger than usual. 98 And you may see trainers acting in the same way toward athletes; for when they are exercising them with continual and uninterrupted practice, before they are wholly worn out, they refresh them, giving a respite not only from their exertions in training, but also from their strict regimen of eating and drinking, relaxing the severity of their diet so as to produce cheerfulness of soul and good condition of body. 99 Yet they are not to be regarded as teachers of indolence and luxury, since their professed business is to train men to endure labours; rather, by a certain method and systematic art they add to their natural strength a strength more powerful still, and to their innate vigour a more energetic vigour still, increasing their previous powers by alternating rest and exertion, as in a well-regulated harmony. 100 And I have learned all this from all-wise nature, which, knowing how industrious and hard-working our race is, has divided our time into day and night, giving us the one for waking and the other for sleep; 101 for, like a caring mother, she naturally feared that her offspring might be worn out with toil; for by day she excites our bodies, and rouses them up to all the necessities and duties belonging to life, compelling to work those who would gladly make a habit of idle leisure and an effeminate and luxurious life. But by night, as if she were sounding a retreat in time of war, she invites us to rest, and to take care of our bodies. 102 And men who have carried a heavy weight of business from morning till evening now lay their burdens aside, return home and devote themselves to ease, and, sinking into deep sleep, refresh themselves after the labours of the day. 103 Nature has allotted to men this long interval between sleeping and waking, so that they may labour diligently and rest by turns, and so have all the parts of their bodies more ready for action, and more active and powerful. 104 And the lawgiver, who is a prophetic spirit, gave us our laws with these things in view, and proclaimed a holiday to the whole country, restraining the farmers from cultivating the land after each six years' incessant industry. But he gave these injunctions not only for the reasons I have mentioned, but also because of his innate humanity, which he sees fit to weave into every part of his legislation, stamping on all who study the holy scriptures a sociable and humane disposition. 105 For he commands his people every seventh year not to fence in any piece of land, but to leave open all the olive gardens and vineyards and all their other possessions, whether seed-land or trees, so that the poor may be able to enjoy the spontaneously growing crops without fear, to a greater, or at any rate no lesser, degree than the owners themselves. 106 For this reason he does not allow the masters to cultivate the land, aiming to spare them the annoyance of feeling that they bear all the expense yet receive no revenue from their lands to make up for it, while the poor enjoy all the crops as their own; and he permits those who appear to be strangers to enjoy all these things, raising them from their apparent lowly condition, and from the reproach of being beggars. 107 Is it not right, then, to love these laws, so full of abundant humanity? By them the rich are taught to share the blessings they have and to impart them to others, and the poor are comforted, no longer forever compelled to frequent the houses of the wealthy to make up the shortages that oppress them; 108 but there are times when widows and orphan children, as if drawing a revenue from their own property, namely the spontaneously growing crops, as I have said before, and all other classes of people who are disregarded because they are not wealthy at last find themselves in possession of plenty, suddenly enriched by the gift of God, who has called them to share with the possessors themselves in the number of the sacred seven. 109 And all those who breed flocks and herds turn their own cattle out, fearlessly and with impunity, to graze on the land of others, choosing the most fertile plains, and the lands most suitable for the feeding of their cattle, availing themselves of the license of the jubilee; and they meet no ill-will or meanness from the masters, since they hold a right in these lands by old custom, a custom that has prevailed for so long that it has become familiar and now prevails even over nature. 110 Having laid down these principles as a kind of foundation of gentleness and humanity, he then puts together seven sevens of years, and so makes the fiftieth year an entirely sacred year, enacting for it some ordinances of special honour beyond those for the ordinary years of sharing property. 111 First he gives this commandment. He thinks it fitting that all property that has been alienated should now be restored to its original masters so that the inheritances originally apportioned to the different tribes may be preserved, and that no one who originally received an allotment may be wholly deprived of his possessions. 112 For it often happens that unforeseen circumstances compel men to sell what belongs to them. And so he provided in a suitable manner for their necessities, and prevented those who purchased the lands from being deceived, allowing the one group to sell their lands, and teaching the others very plainly the conditions on which they are buying. 113 For the law says Do not give a price as if for an everlasting possession, but only for a definite number of years, which must be less than fifty; for the sale ought to be not a sale of the land itself, but a sale of the crops, for two very weighty reasons: one, that the whole country is called the possession of God, and it is impious for anyone else to be recorded as the masters of the possessions of God; and second, that a separate allotment has been assigned to each land-owner, and the law does not wish the man who originally received the allotment to be deprived of it. 114 Therefore, the law invites the man who is able to recover his original property within the period of fifty years, or any one of his nearest relations, to make every effort to repay the price he received, and not to cause loss to the man who bought it and served him at a time when he needed help. 115 At the same time it sympathises with the man too deep in poverty to do so, and shows him compassion, giving him back his former property with the exception of any fields which have been consecrated by a vow, and are so placed in the class of offerings to God. And it is contrary to divine law that anything which has been offered to God should ever become profane through the lapse of time. For this reason it is commanded that the exact value of those fields be paid in full, with no favour shown to the man who dedicated the offering. 116 These are the commandments given concerning the division of the land and the inheritances portioned out in this way. Others are also enacted concerning houses. And since some houses are in cities, within walls, while others are open dwellings in the country, not within any walls, the law has directed that those in the country shall always be redeemed with money, and that those which are not redeemed before the fiftieth year shall be restored without any payment to their original owners, just like their other possessions; for the houses are a portion of the man's possessions. 117 But those within walls may be redeemed by those who sold them for a full year; but if they are not redeemed within that year, then after that year they shall belong permanently to those who bought them, the jubilee of the fiftieth year not injuring the claim of the purchasers. 118 And the reason for these enactments is that God wills to give even strangers an opportunity of becoming firmly established in the land. For since they have no share in the land, since they are not numbered among those to whom the inheritances have been apportioned, the law has allotted to them a property in houses, wishing that those who have come as suppliants to the laws, and who have taken refuge under their protection, should not be homeless wanderers in the land. 119 For when the land was originally portioned out in inheritances, the cities were not divided among the tribes, nor indeed were they originally built up in streets; the inhabitants of the land preferred to live in their open houses in the fields. But later, as their love of fellowship and sharing naturally grew stronger with time, they left these houses and came together, and so they built houses in one place, and cities, in which they also gave the strangers a share, so that they would not be destitute of everything in both the country and the cities. 120 For the tribe set apart and consecrated for the priesthood, the following laws are established. The law did not give the keepers of the temple any portion of the land, considering the first fruits of it a sufficient revenue for them. But it allotted them forty-eight cities to dwell in, and a suburb of two thousand cubits around each city. 121 So, unlike the houses in the other walled cities, it did not confirm the houses in these cities to the purchasers if the sellers were not able to redeem them within the year, but it permitted them to be redeemed at any time, like the open houses in the country taken from the gentiles, to which they corresponded. For the Levites had received only houses in this district, and the lawgiver did not think it right that those who received them should be deprived of them, any more than those to whom the allotments of the open houses in the country had fallen. And that is enough about the houses. 122 But the laws concerning those who owed money to usurers, and those who had become servants to masters, resemble those already mentioned: that the usurers shall not exact usurers' interest from their fellow countrymen, but shall be contented to receive back only what they lent; and that the masters shall treat those they have bought with their money not as slaves by nature but only as hirelings, granting immunity and liberty at once to those who can pay a ransom for themselves, and later to the indigent, either when the seventh year from the beginning of their slavery arrives, or when the fiftieth year comes, even if a man happens to have fallen into slavery only the day before. For this year both is, and is regarded as, a year of remission, in which everyone retraces his steps and returns to his previous prosperity. 123 But the law permits the people to acquire a property in slaves who are not of their own countrymen, but who are of different nations; intending first that there should be a difference between one's own countrymen and strangers, and second, not wishing to exclude entirely from the constitution that wholly indispensable property, slaves; for countless circumstances in life require the ministrations of servants. 124 Sons shall inherit their parents' property, but if there are no sons, then the daughters shall inherit. For just as in their nature men take precedence over women, so also in families they shall have the first share, inheriting property and filling the station of those who have died, being held by a law of necessity that lets no earthborn mortal live forever. 125 But if virgins are left behind unmarried, no dowry having been set apart by the parents while they were still living, they shall receive a share equal to that of the males. But the presiding authority must take care to watch over those left behind, over their growth, the expenses of their sustenance and the training appropriate for girls, and, when the time comes, over a suitable marriage, with husbands approved in all things and selected on merit. 126 Preferably they should be relatives, but if not, they should at least be of the same deme and tribe, so that the lots assigned as dowries will not be alienated through marriages but remain in the tribal allotments as ordered from the beginning. 127 But if someone has no offspring, then let the brothers of the deceased succeed to the inheritance. For the place in the family after sons and daughters belongs to brothers. And if someone dies who has no brothers, the uncles on the father's side should succeed to the property, and if there are no uncles, then the aunts, the closest of the remaining household members and other relatives. 128 But if scarcity strikes the family, so that no blood relations are left, then let the tribe be the heir. For the tribe is also a kind of family, if we draw a larger and more complete circle. 129 The perplexity raised by some, however, should be laid to rest: Seeing that the law mentions all members of the family, the deme, and the tribe in the order of succession to inheritances, why did it remain silent only about parents, who, it would seem, should be just as eligible to inherit their children's property as the children are to inherit theirs? Here is the answer, my good fellow! Since the law is divine, and since it always aims at following the logic of nature, it did not wish to introduce any ill-omened provisions; for parents pray to leave behind living offspring who will have succeeded to their name, their lineage, and their property, while their worst enemies call down the opposite on them as a curse, namely, that the sons and daughters should die before their parents. 130 Therefore in order to avoid making explicit provisions for a situation that would be ill-fitting and discordant with the harmony and concord that characterize the administration of the whole cosmos--namely, the case where children die and parents survive--the law both necessarily and fittingly omitted ordering that mothers and fathers should inherit the property of sons and daughters, knowing that this outcome was out of keeping with life and nature. 131 So then, the law was careful not to say in so many words that parents inherit when their children die, in order not to seem to reproach grieving parents by allotting to them a benefit that no one would want, and in order not to call misfortunes to mind; but it allotted the property to them in another way, as a small consolation for a great evil. 132 How, then, does it do this? It names the father's brother as the heir of his nephews, no doubt rewarding the uncle for the father's sake--unless anyone is foolish enough to suppose that one who honors someone for the sake of someone else in doing so chooses to dishonor the latter. Those who pay attention to their friends' acquaintances do not in this way neglect their friends, do they? Do those who show the most solicitous care for the people they honor not also welcome their friends? In precisely the same way, when the law names the father's brother to share in the inheritance on account of the father, how much more does it name the father!⁠b It does not do this explicitly, for the reasons cited, but it makes clear the will of the lawgiver with surer force than an explicit mention. 133 The eldest son does not share equally with those who came after him but is considered worthy of a double portion, since two people who were previously husband and wife became father and mother on account of the first offspring, and once he came along he was the first to call those who engendered him by these names. Furthermore--and this is the most essential point--the household that was previously childless became one blessed with a son for the continuance of the human race. The seed of this continuance is marriage, and its fruit is the begetting of children, of whom the eldest is the head. 134 I suppose that it is for this reason that the firstborn sons of the enemies who had given no quarter, as the holy scriptures reveal, were all cut off in their youth in one night, while the firstborn of the people of the nation were dedicated to God as a thank-offering and were thus consecrated. For it was necessary to weigh down the former with a heavy and inconsolable grief, the destruction of those who held first place, but to reward the savior God with the firstfruits, whose lot was the preeminence among the children. 135 But there are some men who after getting married and having children have at length unlearned prudence and drifted into incontinence. Lusting after other women, these men have wronged their first wives and behaved toward their children by them no longer as fathers but as uncles, imitating the impious behavior of stepmothers toward previously born children. They have given themselves and their property over entirely to their new wives and to their sons, having been overcome by pleasure, the most shameful passion. The law would not have hesitated to bridle these lusts somehow if it had been possible, so that they would not kick up their heels even more; 136 but since it was difficult, or rather impossible, to cure this wild frenzy, the law abandoned the man as being in the grip of an incurable disease. It did not, however, overlook the son of the woman wronged on account of the new love but commanded that he should receive a double share of the distribution left for the brothers. 137 There are many reasons for this. For in the first place it punishes the guilty man by compelling him to do something good for the son whom he has chosen to treat badly; and it makes clear the invalidity of his inconsiderate judgment in that it profits the one who was in danger of suffering loss at his hands by putting itself in the role of the parent--the role abandoned by the natural father with regard to the firstborn son. 138 Secondly, it shows mercy and compassion to those who have been treated unjustly, lightening their burden of distress by giving them a share in grace and gift; for the double portion of the inheriting son was no less likely to please the mother, who will be encouraged by the kindness of the law, which did not permit her and her offspring to be totally overcome by their enemies. 139 In the third place, being a good referee of justice, it reasoned that the father had freely lavished provisions upon the sons of the beloved wife due to his affection for her, while he considered the sons of the hated wife to deserve nothing due to his hatred for their mother. Thus the former had inherited more than their equal share during his lifetime, while the latter were in danger of being deprived of the whole patrimony even upon his death. So, to equalize the distribution to the sons of both wives, it set aside a double portion as the rightful inheritance of the eldest, the son of the wife who had been put away. This is enough on these matters. THE THIRD FESTIVAL 140 Following the order we have adopted, we now turn to the third festival, the festival of the new moon. First of all, because it is the beginning of the month, and the beginning, whether of number or of time, deserves honour. Secondly, because at this time no part of the whole of heaven is without light. 141 Thirdly, because at that time the more powerful and important body gives a portion of necessary assistance to the less important and weaker body; for, at the time of the new moon, the sun begins to illuminate the moon with a light which is visible to the outward senses, and then she displays her own beauty to those who look on her. And this, it seems, is a clear lesson to men in kindness and humanity, teaching them never to begrudge sharing their own good things with others, but, imitating the heavenly bodies, to drive envy away and banish it from the soul. 142 The fourth reason is that of all the bodies in the heavens, the moon traverses the zodiac in the shortest time: it accomplishes its orbit in a monthly interval. For this reason the law has honored the end of its orbit, the point when the moon has arrived back at the starting point from which it began to travel, by calling that day a feast, so that it might again teach us an excellent lesson: that in the affairs of life we should make the ends harmonious with the beginnings. This will happen if we hold the reins on our first impulses with the power of reason and do not permit them to refuse the reins and to run free like animals without anyone in charge of the herd. 143 As for the benefits the moon provides to everything on earth, why should we run through them in detail? Their proofs are obvious. Or isn't it by its waxings that rivers and springs overflow, and again by its wanings that they diminish; that seas sometimes retreat and are drawn down through their ebb and flow, and at other times suddenly run full through the tide; that the air experiences all sorts of shifts in the form of clear weather, cloudy weather, and other changes? Don't the fruits of cultivated crops and trees grow and come to maturity through the orbits of the moon, which nurses and ripens each of the growing crops through dew-laden and very gentle breezes? 144 But this is not the appropriate occasion, as I said, to praise the moon at length by running through and enumerating the benefits which it provides to animals and to all on the earth. For these reasons and others similar to them, the new moon has been honored and has taken its place among the feasts. THE FOURTH FESTIVAL 145 And after the feast of the new moon comes the fourth festival, the passover, which the Hebrews call pascha, on which the whole people offer sacrifice, beginning at noon and continuing until evening. 146 And this festival was instituted to commemorate, and to give thanks for, the great migration they made from Egypt, with many myriads of people, in accordance with the commands of God given to them; leaving behind, it seems, a country full of every inhumanity and practising every kind of inhospitality, and (what was worst of all) giving the honour due to God to brute beasts; and so at that time, in their great joy, they offered the sacrifices themselves, without waiting for priests. And the law commanded that what was done then be repeated once every year, as a memorial of the gratitude due for their deliverance. This is how the ancient historical accounts relate these things. 147 But those who habitually turn plain stories into allegory argue that the passover figuratively represents the purification of the soul; for they say that the lover of wisdom practises nothing other than a passing over from the body and the passions. 148 At that time each house takes on the character and dignity of a temple; the victim is sacrificed to make a suitable feast for the man who has provided it and for those gathered to share in the feast, all of them duly purified with holy ablutions. And those who are to share in the feast come together not, as at other banquets, to gratify their bellies with wine and food, but to fulfil their hereditary custom with prayer and songs of praise. 149 And this universal sacrifice of the whole people is celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month, a number made up of two sevens, so that nothing considered worthy of honour may be separated from the number seven. And this number is the source of brilliance and dignity for everything. THE FIFTH FESTIVAL 150 And there is another festival combined with the feast of the passover, which involves an unusual food, different from the customary one, namely unleavened bread, from which it takes its name. And two explanations are given for this festival: one particular to the nation, based on the migration already described; the other universal, based on conformity to nature and on the harmony of the whole world. And we must consider how accurate the hypothesis is. This month, though the seventh in both number and order by the revolutions of the sun, is the first in power; 151 and for this reason the sacred scriptures also call it the first. The reason, I think, is this. The vernal equinox is an imitation and representation of the beginning at which this world was created. Accordingly, every year, God reminds men of the creation of the world, and for this purpose brings forward the spring, in which season all plants flourish and bloom; 152 for this reason the law very rightly sets it down as the first month, since in a sense it may be called an impression of the first beginning of all, stamped by it as by an archetypal seal. 153 Although the month in which the autumnal equinox occurs is first in sequence according to solar orbits, it is not considered first in the law. The reason is that at that time, after all the crops have been harvested, the trees lose their leaves and everything that springtime produced in the height of its glory is withering under dry winds after it has been made dry by the flaming heat of the sun. 154 Therefore he thought it incongruous and unfitting to apply the name "first" to the month in which the hill country and the plain become barren and infertile. For the most beautiful and desirable phenomena, those through which the reproduction and growth of animals and fruit and crops take place, and not the ominous destructive forces, must belong to the things that are first and have received the position of leadership. 155 And this feast begins on the fifteenth day of the month, in the middle of the month, on the day on which the moon is full of light, because the providence of God takes care that there will be no darkness on that day. 156 And, again, the feast is celebrated for seven days, because of the honour due to that number, so that nothing that leads to cheerfulness and to thanksgiving to God may be separated from the holy number seven. 157 Of the seven days, Moses declares two holy, the first and the last, naturally giving preeminence to the beginning and the end, and wishing, as with a musical instrument, to unite the two extremities in harmony. 158 And the unleavened bread is ordained because their ancestors took unleavened bread with them when they went out of Egypt, under the guidance of the Deity; or else, because at that time (I mean at the spring season, during which this festival is celebrated) the crop of wheat is not yet ripe, the plains still being loaded with grain and the harvest not yet having come, and so the lawgiver has ordained the use of unleavened food to match it to the state of the crops. For unleavened food is also imperfect or unripe, as a reminder of the good hope that is held; since nature is by this time preparing her annual gifts for the human race, with an abundant and plentiful outpouring of necessities. 159 The interpreters of the holy scriptures also say that the unleavened food is a gift of nature, but that leavened bread is a work of art. 160 Since, therefore, the vernal festival is a commemoration of the creation of the world, and since the most ancient people, those formed out of the earth, must inevitably have used the gifts of the world unaltered, as pleasure had not yet gained dominion, the lawgiver ordained the food most suitable to the occasion, wishing to kindle every year a desire to walk in the paths of a holy and rigid way of life. 161 The setting out of twelve loaves--the same number as the tribes--on the sacred table especially confirms what has been said. For they are all unleavened, the clearest example of an unmixed food which has been prepared not by human skill for pleasure but by nature for the most essential use. This is enough on this topic. THE SIXTH FESTIVAL 162 There is also a festival during the paschal feast, on the day after the first day, and it is called the sheaf, from what takes place on it; for the sheaf is brought to the altar as a first fruit both of the country which the nation has received for its own, and also of the whole land; so as to be an offering both for the nation separately, and also a common one for the whole race of mankind; and so that through it the people worship the living God, both for themselves and for all the rest of mankind, because they have received the fertile earth for their inheritance; for in the country there is no barren soil but even all those parts which appear to be stony and rugged are surrounded with soft veins of great depth, which, because of their richness, are very well suited for the production of living things. 163 The reason is that the nation of the Jews stands in the same relation to the entire inhabited world as a priest does to a city. For it serves as a priest--to state the truth--through the use of all purificatory offerings and the guidance both for body and soul of divine laws which have checked the pleasures of the stomach and those under the stomach and [tamed] the mob [of the senses] by having appointed reason as charioteer over the irrational senses; they also have driven back and overturned the undiscriminating and excessive urges of the soul, some by rather gentle instructions and philosophical exhortations, others by rather weighty and forcible rebukes and by fear of punishment, the fear which they brandish threateningly. 164 Apart from the fact that the legislation is in a certain way teaching about the priesthood and that the one who lives by the laws is at once considered a priest, or rather a high priest, in the judgment of truth, the following point is also remarkable. The multitude of gods, both male and female, honored in individual cities happens to be undetermined and indefinite. The poetic clan and the great company of humans have spoken fabulously about them, people for whom the search for truth is impractical and beyond their capability of investigation. Yet not all people revere and honor the same gods; different people honor different gods. The reason is that they do not consider as gods those belonging to another land but make the acceptance of them the occasion for laughter and a joke. They charge those who honor them with great foolishness since they completely violate sound sense. 165 But if there exists the one whom all Greeks together with all barbarians acknowledge with one judgment as the highest Father of both gods and humans and the Maker of the entire cosmos, whose nature--although it is invisible and unfathomable not only to sight but also to perception--all who spend their time with mathematics and other philosophy long to discover, leaving aside none of the things which contribute to the discovery and service of him, then all people ought to have clung to him, and not to have brought in other gods to share equal honors, as if through some mechanical device. 166 Since they slipped in the most essential matter, the nation of the Jews--to speak most accurately--corrected the false step of others by looking beyond everything which has come into existence through creation since it is generate and corruptible in nature, and chose only the service of the ungenerate and eternal. The first reason for this is that it is excellent; the second is that it is profitable to be dedicated to and associated with the Older rather than those who are younger and with the Ruler rather than those who are ruled and with the Maker rather than those things which come into existence. 167 For this reason it amazes me that some dare to charge the nation with an anti-social stance, when this nation has shown such extensive fellowship and goodwill toward all people everywhere that they offer up prayers and feasts and first fruits on behalf of the common race of human beings and serve the really self-existent God both on behalf of themselves and of others who have run from the services which they should have rendered. 168 These are the things they do for the entire race of human beings. On the other hand they give thanks for themselves for many things. The first is that they are not perpetually wandering here and there among islands and continents, nor reproached like foreigners and those without a permanent home who have settled the lands of others and occupy others' wealth because they have acquired no portion of land for lack of means; instead they have acquired a land and cities and have long possessed their own inheritance, and for this reason it has been a sacred duty for them to offer the first fruits. 169 The second is that they did not receive a worthless and common land, but a good and fertile land both for the breeding of domestic animals and the abundance of unspeakably great crops. For there is no poor soil in it, and even the parts that seem to be stony and hardened are broken up with soft and especially deep veins which because of their richness are good for crop production. 170 Besides this, they did not receive a desolate land, but one in which there was a populous nation and great cities abounding in men. Yet the cities were emptied of their inhabitants and the entire race disappeared except for a small part: some as a result of wars and others as a result of divinely sent attacks because of their new and strange wrongdoing and all of the impieties they used to commit through their great efforts to demolish the laws of nature. These things happened so that those who replaced them might be sobered by the calamities of others, and learn from their deeds that those who become devotees of evil deeds will suffer the same fate but those who have honored a life of virtue will possess their assigned portion, numbered not among emigrants but among the native residents. 171 It has been demonstrated that the first fruit is a handful for their own land and for all lands, offered in thanksgiving for the prosperity and good season which the nation and the entire human race were hoping to enjoy. We should also be aware that many benefits have come by means of the first fruit: first, remembrance of God--it is not possible to find a more perfect good than this; then, the most just recompense to the real Cause of the fruitfulness. 172 For what agricultural skill produces is little or nothing: to build up furrows, to dig and spade all around a plant, to deepen a trench, to cut off excessive growths, or to perform any similar task. But the things which come from nature are all essential and useful: the most fertile ground, a land well-watered by springs and both spring-fed and seasonal rivers and sprinkled with annual rains, mild temperatures of air moved by breezes which are most conducive for life, countless types of crops and plants. Which of these has any human being discovered or engendered? 173 Nature which has engendered these things has not begrudged man its own goods, but considered him the governing part of mortal animals because he has a share in reason and good sense. She therefore chose him on the basis of his merit and summoned him to participate in her own goods. For these things it is right to praise and admire God, the host, since he sees to it that the whole of the truly hospitable earth is always full not only of the necessities but even of the things that make for a luxurious life. 174 Besides this, we should not fail to show regard for benefactors. For the person who is thankful to God who needs nothing and is self-sufficient, will also make it a habit to be thankful to humans, who need countless things. And this offering of the first fruits carries many meanings. In the first place they are a memorial of God; secondly, they are a most just repayment to be offered to the one who is the real cause of all fertility; 175 and the sheaf of the first fruits is barley, intended for the innocent and blameless use of the lower animals; for since it is not consistent with holiness to offer first fruits of everything, since most things are made more for pleasure than for any truly indispensable use, it is also not consistent with holiness to enjoy and partake of anything which is given for food, without first giving thanks to that being to whom it is fitting and pious to offer them. The law ordered that barley, the food honoured with second place, be offered as first fruits; for the first honours were assigned to wheat, and the law has deferred the offering of its first fruits, as the more honourable, to a more suitable season. THE SEVENTH FESTIVAL 176 The solemn assembly of the festival of the sheaf, which has such great privileges, is the prelude to another festival of still greater importance; for from this day the fiftieth day is reckoned, making up the sacred number of seven sevens, with the addition of a unit as a seal to the whole; and this festival, the festival of the first fruits of the grain, takes its name pentecost from the number fifty, (pentēkostos). And on it the custom is to offer up two leavened loaves made of wheat, as a first fruit of the best kind of food made of grain; either because, before the fruit of the year is converted to the use of man, the first produce of the new crop, the first gathered grain that appears is offered as a first fruit, so that by a small emblem the people may display their grateful disposition; 177 We must disclose another reason. Its nature is wondrous and highly prized for numerous reasons including the fact that it contains, as the mathematicians tell us, the most elemental and oldest of the things encased in substances, the right-angled triangle. For its sides, which exist in lengths of three and four and five, combine to make up the sum twelve, the pattern of the zodiac cycle, the doubling of the most fecund number six which is the beginning of perfection since it is the sum of the same numbers of which it is also the product. To the second power, it seems, they produce fifty, through the addition of 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 and 5 x 5. So we must say that the second power is better than the first power to the same degree that fifty is better than twelve. 178 If the image of the lesser is the most beautiful sphere of those which are in heaven, the zodiac, then of what would the better, the number fifty, be a pattern, if not of a completely better nature? This is not the occasion to speak about this. It is sufficient for the present that the difference has been noted so that a principal point is not considered to be subordinate. 179 The feast based on the number fifty has received the name "the feast of the first produce" since during the feast it is customary to offer two leavened loaves made from wheat as the first fruit of grain, the best food. It is named "the feast of the first produce" either because before the annual crop has passed to human use, the first produce of the new grain and the first fruit which has appeared are offered as first fruit. 180 For it is just and religiously correct that those who have received the greatest gift from God, the abundance of the most necessary as well as most beneficial and even the sweetest food, should not enjoy it or have any use of it at all before they offer the first fruits to the Supplier. They are giving him nothing since all things and possessions and gifts are his, but through a small symbol they demonstrate a thankful and God-loving character to the one who needs no favors but showers continuous and ever-flowing favors. 181 Or else because the fruit of wheat is above all the first and most excellent of all produce. 182 And the bread is leavened despite the law forbidding anyone to offer leavened bread on the altar; not so as to create any contradiction in the commands given, but so that, in a way, the giving and receiving may be of one kind; the receiving being gratitude from those who offer it, and the giving an immediate return of the offerings to those who bring them, though not for their own use. 183 For those for whom it is lawful and permissible will use what has once been consecrated; and it is lawful for those who are consecrated to the priesthood, who have received the right given by the humaneness of the law to share in the things offered on the altar which are not consumed by the unquenchable fire, either as a wage for their services or as a prize for contests in which they compete on behalf of piety or as a sacred allotment since they have not acquired their proper share of the land as the other tribes have. 184 And it is permitted to the priests; and the leaven is also an emblem of two other things; first, of that most perfect and complete food, better and more advantageous than anything else one can find among all the things of daily use; and the fruit of wheat is the best of all the things that are sown; so that it is fitting for it to be offered as the most excellent of first fruits, for the most excellent gift. 185 The second is a more figurative meaning, implying that everything which is leavened is apt to inflate and elate; and joy is an irrational elation of the soul. By nature, man rejoices at nothing that exists more than at an abundant and sufficient supply of necessities; for which it is very proper to give thanks joyfully, making a display of gratitude, for the invisible happiness affecting the mind, which becomes perceptible to the outward senses through the medium of the leavened loaves; 186 and these first fruits are loaves, not grain, because when there is grain there is no longer anything lacking for the enjoyment of food, for it is said that wheat is the last of all the sown grains to ripen and come to harvest. 187 So there are two most excellent acts of thanksgiving, referring to two distinct times: to the past, in which we have been saved from experiencing the evils of scarcity and hunger while living in happiness and plenty; and to the future, because we have provided ourselves with supplies and abundant preparations for it. THE EIGHTH FESTIVAL 188 Immediately after comes the festival of the sacred moon, at which it is the custom to play the trumpet in the temple at the same moment that the sacrifices are offered. From this practice it is called the true feast of trumpets, and there are two reasons for it, one particular to the nation and the other common to all mankind. The reason particular to the nation is that it commemorates that most marvellous, wonderful, and miraculous event that took place when the holy oracles of the law were given; 189 for then the voice of a trumpet sounded from heaven, which, it is natural to suppose, reached the very extremities of the universe, so that so wondrous a sound attracted all who were present, making them consider, very likely, that such mighty events were signs foretelling some great things to be accomplished. 190 And what greater or more beneficial thing could come to men than laws affecting the whole race? And the reason common to all mankind was this: the trumpet is the instrument of war, sounding both to command the charge and to command the retreat. There is also another kind of war, ordained by God, when nature is at variance with itself, its different parts attacking one another. 191 And both these kinds of war injure the things on earth. They are injured by the enemies, by the cutting down of trees, and by conflagrations; and also by natural injuries, such as droughts, heavy rains, lightning from heaven, snow and cold; as the usual harmony of the seasons of the year is transformed into complete discord. 192 For this reason the law has given this festival the name of a warlike instrument, in order to show the proper gratitude to God as the giver of peace, who has abolished all seditions in cities, and in all parts of the universe, and has produced plenty and prosperity, not allowing a single spark that could tend to the destruction of the crops to be kindled into flame. THE NINTH FESTIVAL 193 And after the feast of trumpets the solemnity of the fast is celebrated. Perhaps some of those who are perversely minded and are not ashamed to censure excellent things will say, "What sort of feast is this where there is no eating and drinking, no troupe of entertainers or audience, no copious supply of strong drink nor the generous display of a public banquet, nor moreover the merriment and revelry of dancing to the sound of flute and harp, and timbrels and cymbals, and the other instruments of music which awaken the unruly lusts through the channel of the ears?" 194 For it is in these and through these, it seems, that they think good cheer consists. They do this in ignorance of the true good cheer which the all-wise Moses saw with the sharpest of eyes and so proclaimed the fast a feast and named it the greatest of feasts in our ancestral language, "a Sabbath of Sabbaths," or as the Greeks would say, a seven of sevens and a holier than things holy. He did this for many reasons. 195 The first reason is the temperance which the lawgiver is continually exhorting men to display at all times, both in their language and in their appetites, both in and below the belly. And he especially urges them to display it now, when he sets aside a day for its particular observance. For when a person has once learnt to be indifferent to food and drink, those very necessary things, what superfluous thing could he find it difficult to disregard? 196 The second reason is that at this time everyone is occupied with prayers and supplications, and they all devote their entire leisure from morning till evening to nothing but the most acceptable prayers, by which they endeavour to gain the favour of God, entreating pardon for their sins and hoping for his mercy, not for their own merits but through the compassionate nature of that Being who prefers forgiveness to punishment. 197 The third is the time at which this fast is fixed to take place; for by this season all the fruits which the earth has produced during the whole year are gathered in. And therefore Moses regarded it as an act of greediness to proceed at once to devour what has been produced, but he considered fasting and abstaining from touching food a mark of perfect piety, which teaches the mind not to trust in the food which it may have prepared as the cause of health or life. 198 Therefore those who, after the gathering in of the harvest, abstain from the food, all but declare in so many words, "We have received with joy, and we shall cheerfully store up, the bountiful gifts of nature; but we do not ascribe to any corruptible thing the cause of our own durable existence, but we attribute that to the Saviour, to the God who rules in the world, and who is able, either by means of these things or without them, to nourish and to preserve us. 199 In any case, look, he nourished our ancestors even in the desert for forty years. How he opened fountains to give them abundant drink; and how he rained food from heaven sufficient for each day so that they might consume what they needed, and rather than hoarding or bartering or taking thought of the bounties received, they might revere and worship the bountiful Giver and honour him with hymns and benedictions that are due to him." 200 The day of the fast is always celebrated on the tenth day of the month by order of the law. Why is it on the tenth? As we have explained in our treatments of it, wise men call it complete perfection, and it encompasses all the proportions, the arithmetical and the harmonic and the geometric, and in addition the harmonies: the 4:3 ratio through four notes, the 3:2 ratio through five notes, the 2:1 ratio through the octave, the 4:1 ratio through the double octave, and it also has the 9:8 ratio so that it is the most perfect summation of musical theories. For this reason it is called complete perfection. 201 Therefore God has ordained that abstinence from food should take place in accordance with the perfect number, to give the best nourishment to the best thing in us, so that no one may suppose that the interpreter of God's word is enjoining hunger, the most intolerable of all evils, but only a brief cutting off of the stream which flows into the channels of the body. 202 In this way the clear stream that flows from the fountain of reason was likely to reach the soul smoothly and evenly, since a constant flow of food flooding the body also helps to confuse the reason. But if the supply of food is checked, the reason gets a firm footing, as on a dry road, and will be able to go forward safely without stumbling; 203 and besides, it was fitting that, when the supply of everything had turned out as the people wished and was complete, they should, amid the abundance of their harvest, commemorate their earlier lack by fasting, and should offer prayers that they might never actually experience a lack of necessary food. THE TENTH FESTIVAL 204 The last of all the annual festivals is the one called the feast of tabernacles, which falls at the season of the autumnal equinox. Through this festival the lawgiver teaches two lessons: first, that we must honour equality, the first principle and beginning of justice, the principle akin to unshadowed light; and second, that it is also fitting, after witnessing the perfection of all the fruits of the year, to give thanks to the Being who has made them perfect. 205 For autumn (metopōron), as its very name shows, is the season that comes after (meta) the fruits of the year (tēn opōran) have been gathered into the granaries, thanks to the providence of nature, which loves the living creatures on the earth. 206 The people are also commanded to spend the whole period of the feast in tents, either because there is no longer any need to stay out in the open air working the land, since nothing is left in the land, but all the produce is stored in the barns, safe from the damage that the burning sun or violent rains might otherwise do to it. 207 For when the crops which provide nourishment are in the fields, you act as a manager and guard of those necessities not by having cooped yourself up like a woman who belongs at home, but by having gone out to the fields. If severe cold or summer heat happens to you as you live in the open air, the overgrowths of the trees are handy shelters. If you get under their protection, you will be able to escape easily the harm from each. But when all the crops are in, go in with them to look for a more substantial abode for rest in place of the toils which you endured as you worked the land. Or again, it may be a reminder of the long journey of our ancestors which they made through a wide desert, living in tents for many years at each station. 208 It is right in a time of wealth to remember one's poverty, and in an hour of glory to recall the days of one's disgrace, and in a time of peace to think about past dangers. 209 In addition to the pleasure it provides, a not inconsiderable advantage for the practice of virtue comes from this. For people who have had prosperity and adversity before their eyes and have pushed the latter away and are enjoying the free use of the better, of necessity become thankful in disposition and are being urged on to piety by fear of a change of state to the contrary condition. As a result they honor God in songs and words for their present wealth and persistently entreat and conciliate him with supplications that they will no longer be tested with calamities. 210 Again, this festival begins on the fifteenth day of the month, for the reason already given about the spring season, and also so that the world may be full of the most beautiful light, not only by day but also by night, as the sun and moon rise opposite each other in unbroken light, with no darkness coming between to divide them. 211 After the festival has lasted seven days, he adds an eighth as a seal, calling it a kind of crowning feast, apparently not only of this festival but of all the feasts of the year that we have listed; for it is the last feast of the year, and is a very stable and holy kind of conclusion, fitting for men who have now received all the produce of the land and are no longer anxious and uncertain about any barrenness or scarcity. 212 Perhaps, however, the first cubic number, the number eight, was assigned to the feast for the following reason. In its power it is the beginning of solid substance, marking the transition from the incorporeal, the end of the intelligible. The intelligible [make the transition] to a solid nature through the scale of ascending powers. 213 And in fact, the autumnal feast, just as I said, as a kind of summation and end of all the feasts in the year seems to be more stable and steadier since people have already received the revenue from the land and are no longer in a state of fear and baffled by doubts about productivity or dearth. For the anxious thoughts of farmers are not settled until the crops are in because of the losses just waiting to happen from so many people and animals. 214 I have spoken at more than usual length about the sacred week and the sacred number seven, because I wanted to show that all the feasts of the year are, as it were, the offspring of the number seven, which stands to them as a mother. [text missing] follies and joys [text missing]; and because in such assemblies and in a cheerful way of life seasons of delight are established, free of any sorrow or depression, that support both the body and the soul: the body through the pleasure and the soul through the opportunities for philosophical study that they afford. 215 Besides all these, there is another festival sacred to God, with a solemn assembly on the day of the festival, which they call castallus from what takes place in it, as we shall show shortly. Many considerations make it plain that this festival does not rank with the other festivals or share their importance. First, it is not observed by the whole population of the nation, as each of the others is. Second, none of the things brought or offered is laid on the altar as holy or committed to the unquenchable and holy fire. Third, even the number of days for which the festival is to be observed is not expressly stated. 216 Nevertheless, anyone can easily see that it has some of the characteristics of a sacred festival and comes very close to having the privileges of a solemn assembly. For every man who has lands and possessions fills vessels with every kind of fruit borne by fruit-bearing trees (vessels which, as I said before, are called castalli), and brings with great joy the first fruits of his abundant crop into the temple, and, standing in front of the altar, gives the basket to the priest, reciting at the same time the very beautiful and admirable hymn prescribed for the occasion; and if he does not happen to remember it, he listens to it with full attention while the priest recites it. 217 And the hymn is as follows:--"The leaders of our nation renounced Syria, and migrated to Egypt. Though only few in number, they grew until they became a populous nation. When their descendants were oppressed in countless ways by the natives of the land, and no help could be expected any longer from men, they became suppliants of God, fleeing to him for refuge to ask for his help. 218 So he, who is merciful to all who are treated unjustly, received their plea and struck their oppressors with signs and wonders, and prodigies, and with all the marvellous works that he performed at that time. And he delivered those who were being insulted and suffering every kind of treacherous oppression, not only leading them out to freedom but also giving them a most fertile land besides; 219 for it is from the fruits of this land, bountiful God, that we now bring you the first fruits; if indeed it is right to say that one who receives them from you brings them to you. For, Master, they are all your favours and your gifts, which you have judged us worthy of, and so you have enabled us to live comfortably and to rejoice in unexpected blessings that you have given us, who did not expect them." 220 This hymn is sung from the beginning of summer to the end of autumn, by two choruses answering each other without a break, on two separate occasions, each at the end of one complete half of ten years; because men cannot all at once bring the fruits of the seasons to God according to his express command, but different men bring them at different seasons; and sometimes even the same persons bring first fruits from the same lands at different times; 221 for since some fruits ripen faster and others more slowly, whether because of differences in the places where they are grown, some being hotter and some colder, or for countless other reasons, it follows that the time for offering the first fruits of such produce is undefined and uncertain, spread over a long period. 222 The priests are allowed the use of these first fruits, since they had no share of the land themselves and no possessions from which to draw an income; but their inheritance is the first fruits from the whole nation, as wages for the holy ministrations that they perform day and night. 223 That is what I have to say about the number seven and the things related to it among the days, and the months, and the years; and about the festivals connected with this number seven, following the regular sequence of the topics that I set myself, in the order in which they are mentioned in the sacred history. I shall now go on in order to consider the commandment that comes next, the one entitled the honour due to parents. 224 I have already spoken of four commandments that are truly the first, both in the order in which they are placed and in their importance: the commandment about the sole sovereignty by which the world is governed; the one commanding that man should not regard any representation or figure of anything as God; the one forbidding false swearing, or indeed any careless and vain swearing at all; and the one about the sacred seventh day--all of them commandments that tend to piety and holiness. I now turn to the fifth commandment, about the honour due to parents, which, as I showed when I mentioned it separately before, stands on the border between the commandments that concern the affairs of men and those that concern God. 225 For parents themselves stand between divine and human nature, sharing in both: in human nature, since they have plainly been born and will die; and in divine nature, because they have engendered other beings and brought what did not exist into existence; for, in my opinion, parents are to their children what God is to the world; since, just as God gave existence to what had none, they too, imitating his power as far as they are able, make the race of mankind everlasting. 226 This is not the only reason a man's father and mother deserve honour; there are several others. For among all nations that have any regard for virtue, older men are esteemed above younger ones, and teachers above their pupils,⁠c and benefactors above those who have received kindnesses from them, and rulers above their subjects, and masters above their slaves.⁠d 227 Accordingly, parents are placed in the higher and superior class; for they are the elders, and the teachers, and the benefactors, and the rulers, and the masters. And sons and daughters are placed in the inferior class; for they are the younger, and the pupils, and those who have received kindnesses, and subjects, and slaves. That each of these assertions is correct is plain from what actually happens, and proofs drawn from reason will establish their truth even more undeniably. 228 I affirm, then, that what produces is always older than what is produced, and that the cause of anything is older than what it causes; and those who father or bear a child are in some sense the causes and producers of the child fathered or born, and they stand in the position of teachers, since they teach their children everything they themselves know from their earliest infancy, and they not only exercise and train them in the supernumerary accomplishments, impressing reasoning on their children's minds when they come to their prime, but they also teach them the most necessary lessons, which concern choice and avoidance: that is, the choice of virtues and the avoidance of vices and of all the activities that accord with them. 229 For who are more completely benefactors of their children than parents, who have not only brought them into existence, but have then thought them worthy of food, and after that of education in both body and soul, and have enabled them not only to live, but also to live well; 230 training their body by the rules of gymnastics and athletics to make it vigorous and healthy, and giving it an easy way of standing and moving, with elegance and fitting grace, and educating the soul by letters, and numbers, and geometry, and music, and every kind of philosophy that can lift up the mind lodged in the mortal body, lead it up to heaven, and show to advantage the blessed and happy qualities in it, producing admiration of and desire for an unchanging and harmonious system, which they will never afterwards leave if they remain obedient to their captain. 231 Besides the benefits they heap on them, parents also have authority over their own children, not, as in cities, as the result of some drawing of lots or election, where anyone can find fault with his governor for having gained the post by some blunder of fortune rather than by reason, or perhaps by the impetuosity of the multitude, the most inconsiderate and foolish of all things, but because they have been established in this post by the most excellent and perfect wisdom of the sublime nature, which regulates all divine and human affairs according to justice. 232 For these reasons parents are permitted even to accuse their children and to reprove them quite severely, and even, if the children do not submit to spoken threats, to beat them, punish them bodily and imprison them; and if the children are obstinate and resist this treatment, growing stiff-necked through the greatness of their incurable wickedness, the law permits the parents to punish them even to the point of putting them to death. Even so, this permission is not given to the father alone or to the mother alone, because the punishment is so great that it is not fitting for one parent to decide it, but only both together, for it is not probable that both the parents will agree about putting their child to death unless his iniquities are very grievous and clearly outweigh the firm affection that nature has firmly implanted in the parents. 233 But parents have received not only the power of a ruler and governor over their children, but also the power of a master, on both of the strongest grounds for owning servants, namely that they are born in the house and that they are bought with money, for parents spend on their children and for their children's sake a price many times greater than their real value, in wages to nurses, and instructors, and teachers, besides all the expenses of their clothing and food and the rest of their care, in health and in sickness, from earliest infancy until they are fully grown. And servants born in the house include not only those actually born within its walls, but also those who, by the laws of nature, receive from the masters of the house enough support to keep them alive after they are born. 234 Since this is so, those who honour their parents are doing nothing especially praiseworthy, since even any single one of the commandments already mentioned is enough to move them to regard their parents with reverence. But do those men not deserve blame, and accusation, and the most extreme punishment, who neither respect them as older than themselves, nor listen to them as their teachers, nor think them worthy of any requital as their benefactors, nor obey them as their rulers, nor fear them as their masters? 235 Therefore the law says, "Honour your father and your mother next after God;" giving them second place in honour, just as nature herself has ranked them in deciding their proper place and duties. And there is no way you will honour them more than by striving to be, and to appear, virtuous. For being virtuous is seeking virtue without pride and without guile, while appearing virtuous aims at virtue together with a good reputation and praise from one's associates; 236 for parents, thinking little of their own advantage, consider the virtue and excellence of their children the perfection of their own happiness, and so they are eager for their children to obey the injunctions laid on them and to be obedient to all just and beneficial commands; for a father will never teach his child anything that is inconsistent with virtue or with truth. 237 Anyone can infer that pious respect is due to parents not only from what has been said above, but also from the way people behave toward those who are the same age as their parents; for the man who shows respect to an old man or an old woman who is no relation of his must seem in some degree to be remembering his own father and mother, and for that reason to be regarding them as images of his parents, who are the real models. 238 For this reason the sacred scriptures command young men not only to rise up and give the best seats to their elders, but also to rise up before them when they pass by; showing honour to the grey hairs of old age, which they themselves may hope to reach if they now give way to their elders. 239 This commandment also seems to me to have been enacted with great beauty and propriety; for the law says, "Let each man fear his father and his mother," enjoining fear rather than affection, because fear is more advantageous and profitable in the present case, for this first feeling affects foolish people when they are being taught or reproved, and folly cannot be cured by any other means than fear. But the second feeling, affection toward their parents, is not something a lawgiver should instil in children by injunction, for nature requires it to be spontaneous. For nature has implanted it so deeply from earliest infancy in the souls of those so completely united by blood, and by the services the parents do for the children, that it is always self-taught and spontaneous and needs no commandments to enforce it. 240 But the law has enjoined fear, because children are prone to an easy indifference. For though parents attend to their children with an overwhelming affection, providing them with necessary things from all quarters, and bestowing all good things upon them, and shrinking from no labour and from no danger, being bound to them by love stronger than any oaths, some children still do not accept their affection as aimed solely at their good, because they are full of luxury and arrogance, craving a luxurious life, and becoming effeminate both in body and soul, and in no way allowing themselves to hold proper dispositions through the native powers of their minds, powers which they are not ashamed to overthrow, weaken and strip of every energy, and so they come to have no fear of their natural correctors, their fathers and mothers, but yield to and indulge their own private passions and desires. 241 But we must also urge the parents of such children to use weightier and sterner admonitions to cure this impetuous obstinacy in their children, and we must warn the children to reverence their parents, fearing them as their rulers and natural masters; for even these considerations will only with difficulty bring them to hesitate before acting unjustly. 242 I have now gone through all five headings of laws in the first table, and have also noted all the particular points that relate to any one of them. Now I must also point out the punishments attached to breaking these laws. 243 There is one penalty common to them all, death, which gives all such offences a kind of kinship with one another. But the reasons for pronouncing this sentence differ from case to case, and we must begin with the last, the one about parents, since its words are still ringing in our ears, "If anyone shall beat his father or his mother, let him be stoned." And very justly, for the man who insults those who are the causes of his living is not fit to live; 244 but some men of high rank and some lawgivers, looking to the empty opinions of men rather than to the truth, have softened this commandment and made the penalty for those who beat their fathers the cutting off of their hands; and to win a good reputation in the eyes of hasty and thoughtless people, they declare it fitting that the parts with which such men have struck their parents should be cut off; 245 but it is foolish to be angry with the servants rather than with those who cause such folly; for it is not the hands that behave with such insolence, but insolent men perform their actions with their hands, and it is the men who must be punished, unless indeed it can be called fitting to let men who have committed murder with the sword go free and be content with throwing away the sword; and unless, conversely, one ought to honour not those who have shown preeminent valour in war but the inanimate coats of armour in which they fought valiantly; 246 and unless again it is reasonable, in the case of those who have gained the victory in the gymnastic games, in the stadium, or the double race, or the long straight course, or in the contest of boxing, or in the pancratium, to try to crown only the legs and arms of the victors and leave their whole bodies unhonoured. Surely it would be ridiculous to lay down principles like these and so refrain from punishing or honouring those who were the real causes of the results in question; for we do not pass over a man who has given a splendid exhibition of musical skill, playing exquisitely on the flute or the lyre, and think the instruments themselves worthy of proclamations and honours. 247 Why, then, most noble lawgivers, should we deprive men who beat their fathers of their hands? Is it so that from now on they may be wholly useless for any purpose whatever, and may exact tribute, not once a year but every day, from those they have wronged, forcing them to supply their necessary food because they cannot provide for themselves? For their father is not so utterly hard-hearted that he can bear to see even a son who has offended him so grievously die of hunger, once time has blunted his anger. 248 And even if he has not laid hands on his parents but has only spoken ill of those he was bound to praise and bless, or has in any other way done anything that tends to bring his parents into disrepute, let him still die. For he is a common enemy and, to tell the plain truth, a public enemy of all men; to whom else can he be kind and favourable when he is not kind to the authors of his being, through whom he came into this world, and of whom he is a sort of supplement? 249 Again, let the man who has profaned the sacred seventh day as far as it lay in his power, be liable to the death penalty. For, on the contrary, it is proper to provide whatever is profane, whether a thing or a person, with means of purification, to bring about a change for the better, since "envy," as someone has said, "goes forth out of the divine company." But to dare to adulterate or deface the holy coinage is an act of extraordinary impiety. 250 In that ancient migration which took place when the people of Israel left Egypt, and when the whole multitude was travelling through the pathless wilderness, when the seventh day came all those myriads of men whom I described earlier rested in their tents in perfect tranquillity; but one man, and not one of the most despised or the lowest class of the people, disregarding the commands which were laid upon the nation, and ridiculing those who attended to them, went out to gather sticks, though in reality to show his contempt for and violation of the law. 251 He did indeed come back carrying a bundle of sticks in his arm, but the men who remained in their tents although inflamed with anger and exasperated by his conduct, nevertheless did not resort at once to very harsh measures against him that day, because of the holy reverence due to the day, but they led him before the ruler of the people, and made known his impious action, and he committed him to prison and, after a command had been given to put him to death, handed the man over to those who had first seen him, to carry out the execution. So, in my opinion, just as it was not permitted to kindle a fire on the seventh day, for the reason I have already mentioned, it was likewise not lawful to collect any fuel for a fire. 252 The law ordains the death penalty for those who call God as a witness to assertions that are not true; and very properly, for even a moderately respectable man will never allow himself to be cited as a witness and have his name recorded in support of a lie. But it seems to me that he would regard anyone who proposed such a thing to him as a thoroughly faithless enemy; 253 so we must say this: God, although he is merciful by nature, will never release the man who swears rashly and falsely, calling God to witness an unjust oath, since that man is thoroughly defiled and infamous from guilt, even though he may escape punishment at the hands of men. And such a man will never entirely escape, for there are innumerable beings looking on, zealous for the national laws and keepers of them, rigidly just, ready to stone such a criminal, and punishing without pity all who do wickedness, unless, indeed, we are prepared to say that a man who dishonours his father or his mother deserves death, but that one who behaves impiously toward a name more glorious even than the respect due to one's parents should be tolerated as only a moderate offender. 254 But the lawgiver of our nation is not so foolish as to put to death men guilty of minor offences and then treat those who are guilty of heavier crimes with mildness, since surely showing contempt for the sacred name of God through perjury is a greater iniquity than even speaking disparagingly of one's parents or insulting them. 255 And if even one who swears improperly is guilty and blameworthy, what punishment does that man deserve who denies the one only true and living God and now honours the creature above the Creator, and chooses to honour not only the earth and the water, or the air, or the fire, the elements of the universe, or again the sun and moon, and the planets and fixed stars, and the whole of heaven, and the universal world, but even blocks of wood and stones that mortal workmen have fashioned and shaped into human figures? 256 So let such a man himself be likened to images carved by hand; for the man who honours things devoid of soul or life ought not to have any soul himself, especially when he has been a disciple of Moses, whom he has often heard proclaiming to him, under the influence of divine inspiration, those most sacred and holy admonitions, "Do not take the name of any other gods into your soul for a remembrance of them, and do not utter their names with your voice, but keep both your mind and your speech far from all other interpositions, and turn them wholly to the Father and Creator of the universe, so that you may cherish the most virtuous and godly thoughts about his single government, and may speak words that are becoming and most profitable both to yourself and to those that hear you." 257 We have now described the punishments ordained for those who neglect the five commandments. But the rewards offered to those who keep them, though the law has not set them out in express words of command, are nevertheless hinted at figuratively. 258 So not thinking that there are any other gods but the true God, not imagining that things made by the hand of man are gods, and not committing perjury need no other reward, for, in my opinion, merely practising these virtues is itself a most excellent and most perfect reward. For what can delight a lover of truth more truly than devoting himself to one God and attending to his service guilelessly and purely? 259 And when I speak of witnesses, I do not mean people who are slaves to pride, but those devoted to admiring a goodness free from all error, who honour the truth. For wisdom itself is the reward of wisdom; and justice, and each of the other virtues, is its own reward. And truth, as the most beautiful in the whole company and the chief of all the holy virtues, is to a much greater degree its own recompense and reward, since it brings happiness to all who practise it, and to their children and descendants blessings of which they cannot be deprived. 260 Again, those who keep the sacred sabbath properly benefit in two most important respects, in both body and soul: in body, through rest from their continual and incessant labours; and in soul, through forming the most excellent conceptions of God as the Creator of the universe and the careful protector of all the things and beings he has made. And he made the whole universe in one week. These things make it plain that the man who honours the seventh day will himself find honour. 261 In the same way let no one who dutifully honours his parents seek any further advantage, for if he considers the matter he will find his reward in his own conduct. Even so, since this commandment is inferior in importance to the first five commandments, which have a more divine character, because it is concerned with mortal subjects, God has given an incentive to obey this one, saying, "Honour your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, and that your days may be long in the land;" 262 so attaching two rewards to this injunction, the first being, in fact, a share in virtue, for "well" means virtue, or at least cannot exist without virtue; while the second is, to tell the truth, immortality through length of days, and a life of long duration, which you will keep even in the body, living with your soul purified by a perfect cleansing. We have now discussed these things at sufficient length. Next, since the opportunity presents itself, let us consider the commandments in the second table.