The Special Laws

1 The classes and headings of all the special laws, which are called "the ten commandments," have been discussed in detail in the previous treatise. We must now go on to consider the particular commands as we read them in the later passages of the holy scriptures, and we will begin with the one that people in general ridicule. 2 The ordinance of circumcision of the genitals is ridiculed, though it is widely practised among other nations too, and above all by the Egyptians, who seem to me the most populous of all nations, and the richest in every kind of wisdom. 3 So it would be most fitting for men to set aside childish ridicule and to investigate the real causes of the ordinance with more prudence and dignity, considering why the custom has prevailed, and not rushing to condemn the folly of mighty nations without examination, remembering that it is unlikely that so many myriads would be circumcised in every generation, mutilating their own bodies and those of their nearest relatives in a way that causes severe pain, without adequate cause; but that there are many reasons that might encourage men to persevere in and continue a custom introduced by previous generations, and that these reasons are of the greatest weight and importance. 4 First of all, it prevents a painful disease, an affliction that is hard to cure, which they call a carbuncle, because, I imagine, it burns when it becomes inflamed, and that is how it got its name. And this disease very readily develops among those who have not undergone the rite of circumcision. 5 Secondly, it secures the cleanliness of the whole body in a way suited to a people consecrated to God; with this aim the Egyptian priests, extravagant in their care, shave their whole bodies, for some of the harmful things that ought to be removed collect and lodge under the hair and the prepuce. 6 Thirdly, there is the resemblance of the circumcised part to the heart, for both are made for the sake of generation: the breath contained within the heart generates thoughts, and the generative organ itself produces living beings. So the men of old thought it right to make the evident and visible organ, by which the objects of the outward senses are generated, resemble the invisible and superior part by which ideas are formed. 7 The fourth, and most important, concerns the provision it makes for fertility; for it is said that the semen travels its path easily, neither being scattered at all nor flowing on its way into what may be called the bags of the prepuce. For this reason the nations that practise circumcision are the most prolific and the most populous. 8 We have heard these considerations, which were discussed long ago among men of divine spirit and wisdom who interpreted the writings of Moses in no superficial or careless way. But besides what has already been said, I also regard circumcision as a symbol of two utterly indispensable things. 9 First of all, it is a symbol of the excision of the pleasures which delude the mind; for since the union of man and woman is the most exquisite of all the delights pleasure can give, the lawgivers saw fit to mutilate the organ that serves such unions; by this rite they signified figuratively the excision of all superfluous and excessive pleasure, not of one pleasure only, though that one is the most imperious of all, but of every other as well. 10 The second is that it symbolizes a man's knowing himself and casting off that terrible disease, the conceit of the soul; for some men, like skilled sculptors, have boasted that they can make that most beautiful of creatures, man, and, puffed up with arrogance, have made gods of themselves, hiding from sight the true cause of the creation of all things, namely God, although they could have corrected that error by considering the people they live among; 11 for among them there are many childless men, and many barren women whose unions come to nothing, so that they grow old without children. So we must root out evil opinions from the mind, along with every other idea not devoted to God. That is enough to say on these subjects. 12 But we must now turn to the special and particular laws; and first of all to those concerning those by whom it is good to be governed: the laws enacted about Monarchy. 13 Some people have supposed that the sun, the moon and the other stars are independent gods, and have attributed to them the causes of all things that exist. But Moses knew well that the world was created and was like a very large city, with rulers and subjects in it, the rulers being all the bodies in heaven, such as the planets and fixed stars,⁠a 14 and the subjects all the natures beneath the moon, hovering in the air and close to the earth. He also knew that the rulers just mentioned are not independent and absolute, but are the viceroys of one supreme Being, the Father of all, in imitation of whom they administer the charge entrusted to them properly and successfully, just as he presides over all created things in strict accordance with justice and law. Others, by contrast, who have not discovered the supreme Governor who rules everything in this way, have attributed the causes of the various things in the world to the subordinate powers, as if those powers had brought them about by their own independent act. 15 But the most sacred lawgiver turns their ignorance into knowledge, speaking as follows: "You shall not, when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the host of heaven, be led astray and fall down and worship them." Here he has very aptly and properly called the acceptance of these bodies as gods an error; 16 for those who see that the different seasons of the year owe their existence to the advances and retreats of the sun, during which the generation of animals, plants and fruits is also completed at well-defined times, and who see also that the moon is the servant and successor of the sun, taking the same care and oversight of the world by night that the sun takes by day; and also that the other stars, in accordance with their sympathy with things on earth, labour continually and do ten thousand things that help preserve the existing order, have been led into an inextricable error, imagining that these bodies are the only gods. 17 But if they had taken the trouble to travel the straight and true road, they would soon have known that just as the outward sense is the subordinate minister of the mind, so all the objects of the outward senses are servants of what is perceptible only to the intellect, and are well content if they can reach second place in honour. 18 But it is altogether ridiculous to imagine that the mind, the smallest thing in us and in fact invisible, rules the organs of the external senses, while the greatest and most perfect ruler of the whole universe is not the King of kings, and that the being who sees does not rule those who do not see. 19 So we must regard all the bodies in heaven that the outward sense takes for gods not as independent rulers, since they are assigned the work of lieutenants, being by their very nature answerable to a higher power, though because of their virtue they are not actually called to give an account of their actions. 20 So let us rise by reason above all visible essence and press forward to honour the everlasting and invisible Being who can be comprehended and appreciated by the mind alone; who is not only the God of all gods, whether appreciable only by the intellect or visible to the outward senses, but is also the creator of them all. And if anyone abandons the service due to the everlasting and uncreated God and transfers it to any more recent, created being, let him be counted mad and open to the charge of the greatest impiety. 21 But some people have given gold and silver to sculptors and statue-makers, as people able to fashion gods for them. And these craftsmen, taking the lifeless materials and using a mortal model, have (a most extraordinary thing) made gods, at least in appearance, and people have built temples and erected altars and dedicated them to these gods, honouring them with excessive pains and diligence, with sacrifices and processions, and all kinds of other sacred ceremonies and purifications; while the priests and priestesses exert themselves to the utmost of their power to spread this kind of pride and vanity. 22 To them the Father of the universe speaks in this way: "You shall not make to yourselves gods of silver and gold;" all but telling them in so many words, "You shall not make to yourselves any gods whatever of this or of any other material, nor shall you worship anything made with hands," the two most excellent materials being named expressly in the prohibition; for silver and gold are esteemed the most honourable of all materials. 23 And besides this explicit prohibition, these words seem to me meant to convey another, figurative meaning, one with a very great influence on the formation of moral character, and one that strongly convicts those who covet money and seek to get silver and gold from every quarter, and, once they have acquired it, store it up in their inmost shrines as though it were some divine image, regarding it as the cause of all good things and of all happiness. 24 It also convicts all the poor men who are gripped by that terrible disease, the love of money, but who, having no riches of their own they think worth their attention, fix their admiration on the wealth of their neighbours, and, to adore it, come first thing in the morning to the houses of the wealthy as if to noble temples, there to offer prayers and to beg blessings from the owners as if from the gods. 25 And to these men, Moses says, in another passage, "You shall not follow images, and you shall not make to yourselves molten gods." He is teaching them, in figurative language, that it is not right to pay wealth the honours one would pay to the gods; for those celebrated materials of wealth, silver and gold, are made to be used, yet the multitude follows them, regarding them as the only causes of wealth, which is proverbially called blind, and the special sources of happiness. 26 These are what Moses calls idols: they resemble shadows and phantoms and have nothing strong, trustworthy or lasting about them; for they are tossed about like the unstable wind, and are subject to all kinds of variations and changes. And the greatest possible proof of this is that it has suddenly descended on people who did not expect it at all, and again has flown away when they thought they had taken firm hold of it. And even while it is present, images appear as in a mirror, deceiving the outward senses and setting traps for them, and seeming as if they would last a long time, when in reality they do not endure. 27 And why do I need to explain how unstable the wealth and pride of men are, which vain opinions decorate with showy colours? For some men before now have affirmed that all animals and plants, everything that is born and decays, are in one continual and incessant state of transition, and that the senses perceive this transition only somewhat dimly, because the swiftness of nature outstrips even the quickest and most precise glance of the eye. 28 But not only are wealth, glory and all other such things mere phantoms and insubstantial images; so too are all the other deceits that the inventors of fables have devised, puffed up by their own ingenuity, while they raise a fortification of false opinion against the truth, bringing in God as if by some theatrical machine, in order to prevent the everlasting and only truly existing God from being consigned to oblivion. These men have set their falsehood to melodies, rhythms and metres with an eye to persuasion, thinking that by these means they would easily beguile all who read their works. 29 Moreover, they have also enlisted the arts of sculpture and painting as partners in their system of deceit, so that, winning over the spectators with well-crafted appearances of colours, forms and distinctive qualities, and having captured with their allurements the principal outward senses of sight and hearing, the one by the exquisite beauty of lifeless forms, and the other by a poetical harmony of numbers--they may captivate the unstable soul, make it feeble and rob it of any settled foundation. 30 For this reason Moses, well aware that pride had by then risen to a very great height of power, that most of mankind guarded it well, and did so not under compulsion but of their own accord, and fearing that those who admire uncorrupted and genuine piety might be swept away as if by a torrent, stamped a deep impression on the minds of men, engraving piety on them, so that the impression he made would not become blurred or weakened and at last be wholly erased by time. And he is constantly prophesying and telling his people that there is one God, the creator and maker of the universe; and at other times he teaches them that he is the Lord of all created things, since everything that is firm, solid, truly stable and sure is by nature made to be bound to him alone. 31 And it is said in the scriptures that, "Those that are attached to the living God do all live." Is it not, then, a most happy life, a most blessed existence, to be content with giving due service to the most venerable Cause of all things, and not to choose to serve his subordinate ministers and door-keepers in preference to the King himself? And this life is immortal, and is recorded on the pillars of nature as long-lasting. And these writings must inevitably last for all eternity, together with the world itself. 32 But the Father and Ruler of the universe is a being whose character is difficult to arrive at by conjecture and hard to comprehend; even so, we must not shrink from investigating it on that account. In investigating the nature of God, there are two questions of the greatest importance that perplex the intellect of anyone who devotes himself to philosophy in a genuine spirit. One is whether there is any Deity at all. This question arises from the atheism (which is the greatest of all vices) of those men who study philosophy. The other question is, supposing there is a God, what he is in his essence. The first question is not very difficult to settle, but the second is not only difficult but perhaps impossible. We must, however, consider both these matters. 33 Works have invariably served, to some degree, as proofs of the character of the workmen who made them; for who, looking at statues or pictures, does not at once form an idea of the sculptor or painter himself? And who, seeing a garment, a ship or a house, does not instantly form a notion of the weaver, shipbuilder or architect who made it? And if anyone comes into a well-ordered city, in which all parts of the constitution are exceedingly well arranged and regulated, what will he conclude except that this city is governed by wise and virtuous rulers? 34 So anyone who comes into what is truly the greatest of cities, namely this world, and sees all the land, both mountains and plains, full of animals and plants, and the streams of rivers, both overflowing and fed by winter floods, and the steady flow of the sea, and the admirable temperateness of the air, and the varieties and regular revolutions of the seasons of the year; and then too the sun and moon, the rulers of day and night, and the revolutions and regular motions of all the other planets and fixed stars, and of the whole heaven; would he not naturally, or rather of necessity, form a notion of the Father, creator and governor of this whole system, 35 since no work of art whatever comes into being of its own accord? And the world is the most artfully and skilfully made of all works, as if put together by someone altogether accomplished and most perfect in knowledge. This is how we have come to an idea of the existence of God. 36 Again, even if his essence is very difficult to ascertain and very hard to comprehend properly, we must still investigate its nature as far as possible; for there is no more excellent pursuit than searching out the nature of the true God, even though the discovery may transcend all human ability, since the very desire and effort to comprehend it can by itself provide indescribable pleasures and delights. 37 Witnesses to this are those who have not merely tasted philosophy with the tips of their lips, but have feasted abundantly on its reasonings and doctrines; for the reasoning of these men rises high above the earth and roams the air, and, soaring aloft with the sun, the moon and all the firmament of heaven in its eagerness to behold everything in it, finds its vision somewhat blurred by the vast flood of pure light poured over it, so that the eye of the soul is dazzled and confused by the splendour. 38 But he does not lose heart on that account and abandon the task he has undertaken; he presses on with invincible determination towards the sight he considers attainable, as if he were a competitor at the games, striving for second prize after missing the first. Guess and conjecture are inferior to true perception, as are all the notions classed as reasonable and plausible opinions. 39 So although we do not know and cannot accurately determine what each of the stars is in its pure and real essence, we are still eager to investigate the subject, delighting in probable reasoning because of the love of learning implanted in our nature. 40 In the same way, though we cannot reach a distinct conception of the truly living God, we still ought not to give up the task of investigating his character, because even if we fail to make the discovery, the search itself is useful in its own right and a worthy object of ambition; since no one ever blames the eyes of the body for being unable to look at the sun itself, and so shrinking from the brilliance its beams pour on them and looking down at the earth instead, recoiling from the extreme brilliance of the rays of the sun. 41 With this in view Moses, that interpreter of the divine word and the man most beloved by God, begged God and said, "Show me yourself"--all but pressing him and crying out in loud, distinct words--"the whole world teaches me that you have a real being and existence, assuring me of the fact and instructing me as a son might about the existence of his father, or a work about the existence of the workman. But though I very much want to know what you are in your essence, I can find no one anywhere in the universe who is able to explain to me anything about this branch of learning. 42 So I beg and implore you to receive the plea of a man who is your suppliant, devoted to God's service and wanting to serve you alone; for just as light is not made known by anything else but is its own manifestation, so you alone must be able to manifest yourself. So I hope to be pardoned if, for lack of anyone to teach me, I am bold enough to flee to you, wanting to receive instruction from you yourself." 43 But God replied, "I welcome your eagerness, since it is praiseworthy, but what you ask is not fit to be granted to any created being. And I bestow only the gifts that suit the one who receives them; for it is not possible for a man to receive all that it is easy for me to give. So to whoever deserves my favour I give all the gifts he is able to receive. 44 Not only human nature but even the whole heaven and the whole world is unable to reach an adequate comprehension of me. So know yourself, and do not be carried away by impulses and desires beyond your power; and do not let a desire of unattainable objects carry you away and keep you in suspense. For you shall not lack anything that you are able to possess." 45 When Moses heard this he turned to a second plea, and said, "Your explanations have persuaded me that I could not have received the visible appearance of your form. But I beg you to let me at least see the glory that surrounds you. And I take your glory to be the powers that attend you as your guards; I have not grasped them until now, and that stirs in me no slight desire to understand them thoroughly." 46 But God replied, "The powers you seek to see are altogether invisible and perceptible only to the intellect, since I myself am invisible and perceptible only to the intellect. And by things perceptible only to the intellect I do not mean those the mind already comprehends, but those which, even if they could be so comprehended, are still wholly beyond the reach of the outward senses and within reach only of the very purest intellect. 47 And though they are by nature incomprehensible in their essence, they still display a kind of impression or copy of their energy and operation; just as your seals, when wax or a similar material is pressed against them, make countless figures and impressions without losing any part of themselves, remaining unaltered and as they were before, so also you must conceive that the powers which are around me invest those things which have no distinctive qualities with such qualities, and those which have no forms with precise forms, and do so without any part of their own everlasting nature being dismembered or weakened. 48 And some of your race, speaking with sufficient correctness, call them ideas (ideai), since they give a peculiar character (idiopoiousi) to every existing thing, ordering what had no order before, and limiting, defining and fashioning what previously lacked all limitation, definition and fashion; and, in short, changing what was bad into something better in every respect. 49 "So never expect to be able to comprehend me or any one of my powers in our essence. But, as I have said, I willingly and gladly grant you whatever you are able to receive. And this gift is to call you to contemplate the world and everything in it, which must be comprehended not by the eyes of the body but by the sleepless vision of the soul. 50 The desire for wisdom alone is continual and incessant, and it fills all its pupils and disciples with famous and most beautiful doctrines." When Moses heard this he did not give up his desire, but still burned with longing to understand invisible things. 51 And he welcomes all people of a similar character and disposition, whether they were born that way or have become so through a change of conduct, having become better people and so entitled to be ranked in a higher class, approving of the first group because they have not defaced their nobility of birth, and of the second because they have chosen to change their lives and come over to nobility of conduct. And these last he calls proselytes (prosēlytous), because they have come over (proselēlythenai) to a new and God-fearing constitution, learning to disregard the fabulous inventions of other nations, and clinging to unalloyed truth. 52 Accordingly, having given equal rank and honour to all who come over and granted them the same favours bestowed on the native Jews, he urges those ennobled by truth to treat them not only with respect but with special friendship and lavish benevolence. And is this not a reasonable recommendation? What he says is this. "Those men, who have left their country, and their friends, and their relations for the sake of virtue and holiness, ought not to be left without other cities, houses and friends; there ought to be places of refuge always ready for those who come over to religion; for the most effectual allurement and the most indissoluble bond of affectionate good will is the mutual honouring of the one God." 53 Moreover, he also instructs his people that, once they have given the proselytes an equal share in all their laws, privileges and immunities when the proselytes forsake the pride of their fathers and ancestors, they must not give free rein to jealous language and unbridled tongues by blaspheming the beings the other group regards as gods, for fear that the proselytes, provoked by such treatment, would in return speak impiously against the true and holy God; for, not knowing the difference between them, and having learnt from infancy to regard what was false as true and been brought up with it, they would be likely to err. 54 And there are some of the Gentiles, who, neglecting the honour due to the one God alone, deserve the most severe punishment, since they have forsaken the most important class of piety and holiness, chosen darkness over the most brilliant light, and blinded their own intellect when it could have seen clearly. 55 And it is right that all who have any admiration for virtue should be charged to inflict all such punishment at once, without any delay, not bringing the offenders before any tribunal, council or bench of magistrates, but giving vent to their own disposition which hates evil and loves God, so as to punish the impious with implacable rigour, regarding themselves for the moment as everything: counsellors, and judges, and generals, and members of the assembly, and accusers, and witnesses, and laws, and the people; so that, with nothing conceivable to hinder them, they may all together come forward fearlessly to fight as the champions of holiness. 56 The history of the law records one man who ventured on this exploit of noble daring, for when he saw some men attaching themselves to foreign women and, because of their allurements, neglecting all their national customs and laws and practising mythical ceremonies, he was seized with a sudden enthusiasm in the presence of the whole multitude; and pushing aside all the people on either side who had gathered to watch, he killed one man who had dared to put himself forward as the leader and chief of this transgression of the law (for the impious deed had already been displayed and made a public spectacle), and while he was openly performing sacrifices to images and unholy idols, he, I say, without being influenced by any fear, killed him, together with the woman who was with him; the man because of his readiness to learn things it would have been better for him never to learn, and the woman because she was his teacher in evil. 57 This action, done suddenly in the heat of the moment, served as a warning to a vast multitude who were ready to commit similar follies; so God, praising this virtuous exploit, done in this way out of voluntary and spontaneous zeal, repaid the doer with two rewards: peace and the priesthood. With peace, because he judged that the man who had voluntarily taken on a contest for the honour of his God deserved to enjoy a life safe from war; and with the priesthood, because it is the most fitting honour for a pious man who professes eagerness to serve the Father of all, since serving him is better not only than all freedom but even than royal authority. 58 But some men have gone to such lengths of extravagant madness that they have left themselves no retreat or way to repentance, and rush headlong into slavery and service to images made by hands, declaring it in clear letters, not written on paper, as is the custom with slaves, but branding the characters deep on their persons with a burning iron, so that they remain indelibly, for these things are not dimmed or weakened by time. 59 And the most sacred Moses seems to have kept the same object and intention in every other case too, being both a lover and a teacher of truth, which he wants to stamp and impress on all his disciples, driving out all false opinions and forcing them to settle far from their minds. 60 At any rate, knowing that divination contributes greatly to the errors in the lives of the multitude and leads them out of the right way, he did not allow his disciples to use any kind of it at all, but drove all who practised it in any way far from his everlasting constitution, and banished all sacrificers and purifiers, and augurs, and soothsayers, and enchanters, and those who devoted themselves to the art of prophesying from sounds; 61 for all these men only guess at what is probable and likely, drawing different notions from the same appearances at different times, because the subjects of their art have no stable and constant character, and because the intellect has never devised any accurate test for examining the opinions that are approved. 62 And all these things are only the furniture of impiety. How so? Because he who attends to them, and who allows himself to be influenced by them, disregards the cause of all things, looking upon those things alone as the causes of all things, whether good or evil; and he does not perceive that he is making all the cares of life depend on the most unstable supports, upon the motion of birds and feathers in the air, in this and that direction; and upon the paths of reptiles, crawling along the ground, which creep out of their holes in search of food; and even upon entrails, and blood, and dead corpses, which, the moment they are deprived of life, fall to pieces and become confused; and, deprived of the original nature that belonged to them, are changed, and subjected to a transformation for the worse. 63 For he thinks it right that the man who is legally enrolled as a citizen of his constitution should be perfect, not in the things in which the multitude is educated, such as divination, and augury, and plausible conjectures, but in the observances due to God, which contain nothing doubtful or uncertain, but only indubitable and naked truth. 64 And since there is implanted in all men a desire to know future events, and since, because of this desire, they resort to sacrifices and other kinds of divination, as if by these means they would be able to search out and discover the truth (but these things are, in reality, full of indistinctness and uncertainty, and are continually being convicted by themselves), he forcefully forbids his disciples to apply themselves to such sources of knowledge; and he says that if they are truly pious they will not be deprived of a proper knowledge of the future; 65 but that some other Prophet will suddenly appear to them, inspired like himself, who will preach and prophesy among them, saying nothing of his own (for he who is truly possessed and inspired, even when he speaks, is unable to comprehend what he is himself saying), but that all the words he utters would come from him as if another were prompting him; for the prophets are interpreters of God, who is only using their voices as instruments, in order to explain what he chooses. Having said this, and other things like it, about the proper idea to be held of the one real, and true, and living God, he goes on to explain how one ought to pay him the honours that are his due. 66 We ought to look upon the universal world as the highest and truest temple of God, having as its most holy place the most sacred part of the essence of all existing things, namely, the heaven; as its ornaments, the stars; and as its priests, the subordinate ministers of his power, namely, the angels, incorporeal souls, not beings compounded of irrational and rational natures, such as our bodies are, but beings whose irrational parts are wholly cut out, being absolutely and wholly intellectual, pure reasonings, resembling the unit. 67 But the other temple is made with hands; for it was desirable not to cut short the impulses of men who were eager to bring in contributions for the objects of piety, and desirous either to show their gratitude by sacrifices for whatever good fortune had come to them, or else to implore pardon and forgiveness for whatever errors they might have committed. He also foresaw that there could not be a great number of temples built, either in many different places or in the same place, thinking it fitting that as God is one, his temple also should be one. 68 Next, he does not permit those who desire to perform sacrifices in their own houses to do so, but he orders all men to rise up, even from the furthest boundaries of the earth, and to come to this temple, and by this command he is at the same time testing their dispositions most severely; for he who was not about to offer sacrifice in a pure and holy spirit would never bring himself to leave his country, and his friends, and relations, and emigrate to a distant land, but, under the influence of an attraction more powerful than the attraction towards piety, would probably stay attached to the society of his most intimate friends and relations as portions of himself, to which he was most closely attached. 69 And the clearest proof of this is found in the events that actually took place. For innumerable companies of men from a countless variety of cities, some by land and some by sea, from east and from west, from the north and from the south, came to the temple at every festival, as if to some common refuge and safe asylum from the troubles of this most busy and painful life, seeking to find tranquillity, and to obtain release and respite from the cares that had hampered and weighed them down from their earliest infancy, 70 and so, by catching their breath, as it were, to spend a brief time in cheerful festivities, being filled with good hopes and enjoying the leisure of that most important and necessary holiday, which consists in forming friendships with people unknown until now but now initiated by boldness and a desire to honour God, and forming a combination of actions and a union of dispositions so as to join in sacrifices and libations as the fullest confirmation of mutual goodwill. 71 The outer circuit of this temple, the most extensive in both length and width, was protected by fortifications adorned at the greatest cost. And each of them is a double portico, built and adorned with the finest materials of wood and stone, and with abundant supplies of all kinds, and with the greatest skill of the workmen, and the most diligent care on the part of the superintendents. But the inner circuits were less extensive, and they were built and adorned more simply. 72 And in the centre was the temple itself, beautiful beyond all description, as one may guess from what can now be seen on the outside; for what is innermost is invisible to every human creature except the high priest alone, and even he is required to enter that holy place only once a year. So everything is invisible. For he carries in a brazier full of coals and frankincense; and when a great smoke rises from it, as is natural, and everything around is enveloped in it, the sight of men is clouded, and checked, and prevented from penetrating inside, being wholly unable to pierce the cloud. 73 But, being very large and very lofty, although built on very low ground, it is not inferior to any of the greatest mountains around. Its buildings are so exceedingly beautiful and magnificent that they are admired by all who see them, and especially by all foreigners who travel to those parts, who compare them with their own public buildings and marvel at both the beauty and the sumptuousness of this one. 74 But there is no grove or plantation in the space around it, in keeping with the prohibitions of the law, which forbid this for many reasons. First, because a building that is truly a temple does not aim at pleasure and seductive allurements, but at a rigid and austere sanctity. Second, because it is not proper to bring in the things that keep trees green, such as the dung of irrational animals and of men. Third, because trees that cannot be cultivated are of no use, but are, as the poets say, the burden of the earth; while those that can be cultivated, and that produce wholesome fruit, draw the attention of the fickle-minded away from thinking of the respect due to the holy place itself, and to the ceremonies in which they are engaged. 75 And besides these reasons, shady places and dense thickets are places of refuge for evil doers, since by wrapping them in darkness they give them safety and enable them to fall suddenly, as from an ambush, on anyone they choose to attack. But wide spaces, open and uncovered in every direction, where nothing can block the view, are best suited to giving a clear view to all those who enter and remain in the temple. 76 But the temple has for its revenues not only portions of land, but also other possessions of much greater extent and importance, which will never be destroyed or diminished; for as long as the human race lasts, the revenues of the temple will likewise always be preserved, lasting as long as the whole world. 77 For all men from twenty years old and upwards are commanded to bring their first fruits to the temple every year; and this contribution is called their ransom. So they bring in the first fruits very cheerfully, joyful and delighted, since at the very moment they make the offering they are sure to find either a relaxation from slavery, or a relief from disease, and to receive a completely secure freedom and safety in every respect for the future. 78 And since the nation is the most numerous of all peoples, it follows naturally that the first fruits contributed by them must also be most abundant. So in almost every city there is a storehouse for the sacred things, where the people customarily come to deposit their first fruits, and at certain seasons there are sacred ambassadors selected on account of their virtue, who convey the offerings to the temple. And the most eminent men of each tribe are elected to this office so that they may bring the hopes of each individual safely to their destination; for the hopes of the pious lie in the lawful offering of the first fruits. 79 There are twelve tribes of the nation, and one of them, selected from the others for its excellence, has received the priesthood, an honour given as a reward for its virtue, and fidelity, and its devout soul, which it displayed when the multitude appeared to be running into sin, following the foolish choices of some persons who persuaded their countrymen to imitate the vanity of the Egyptians, and the pride of the nations of the land, who had invented fables about irrational animals, and especially about bulls, making gods of them. For this tribe went out of its own accord and killed all the leaders of this apostasy, from the youth upwards, and in doing so appeared to have done a holy deed, taking on a contest and a labour for the sake of piety. 80 These are the laws that relate to the priests. The priest is required to be whole and unmutilated, having no blemish on his body, no part being deficient, either naturally or through mutilation; and on the other hand, nothing superfluous, whether present from his birth or grown later through disease; his skin, also, must never have changed from leprosy, or wild lichen, or scab, or any other eruption or breaking out; all of which seem to me designed as symbols of the purity of his soul. 81 For if it was necessary to examine the mortal body of the priest, so that it would not be imperfect through any misfortune, it was much more necessary to look into his immortal soul, which they say is fashioned in the form of the living God. The image of God is the Word, by which all the world was made. 82 And after enjoining that the priest is to be of pure blood, and descended from fathers of noble birth, and that he must be perfect in body and soul, laws are also enacted concerning the garments which the priest must wear when he is about to offer the sacred sacrifices and to perform the sacred ceremonies. 83 This dress is a linen tunic and a belt, the belt to cover the parts that must not be exposed naked near the altar of sacrifice. And the tunic allows promptness in performing the required ministrations; for they are but lightly clad, only in their tunics, when they bring their victims, and the libations, and the other requisite offerings for sacrifice, dressed so that they can move with unhesitating speed. 84 But the high priest is commanded to wear a similar dress when he goes into the holy of holies to offer incense, because linen is not made of any animal that dies, as woollen garments are. He is also commanded to wear another robe, with very beautiful embroidery and ornament on it, so that it may seem to be a copy and representation of the world. And the description of the ornament is a clear proof of this; 85 for first, the whole of the round robe is of hyacinthine colour, a tunic reaching to the feet, an emblem of the air, since the air too is by nature black, and may in a sense be said to reach to the feet, as it extends from the regions around the moon above to the lowest places of the earth. 86 Next there was a woven garment in the form of a breastplate on it, and this was a symbol of the heaven; for on the points of the shoulders are two emerald stones of the greatest value, one on one side and one on the other, each perfectly round and single on each side, as emblems of the hemispheres, one of which is above the earth and the other under the earth. 87 Then on his chest there are twelve precious stones of different colours, arranged in four rows of three stones each, fashioned as an emblem of the zodiac. For the zodiac also consists of twelve animals, and so divides the four seasons of the year, allotting three animals to each season. 88 And the whole place is very correctly called the logeum (logeion), since everything in heaven has been created and arranged in accordance with right reason (logois) and proportion; for there is absolutely nothing there that is devoid of reason. And on the logeum he embroiders two woven pieces of cloth, calling one manifestation and the other truth. 89 By the one he calls truth he expresses figuratively that it is absolutely impossible for falsehood to enter any part of heaven, but that it is entirely banished to the parts around the earth, dwelling among the souls of impious men. And by the one he calls manifestation he implies that the natures in heaven make manifest everything that takes place among us, things which on their own would remain completely and universally unknown. 90 And the clearest proof of this is that if there were no light, and if the sun did not shine, it would be impossible for the indescribable variety of qualities of bodies to be seen, and for all the manifold differences of colours and forms to be distinguished from one another. And what else could show us the days and the nights, and the months and the years, and in short the divisions of time, but the harmonious and inconceivable revolutions of the sun, and moon, and other stars? 91 And what could reveal the true nature of number, except those same bodies just mentioned, through the observation of how they combine the parts of time? And what else could have cut the paths through the ocean and through such numerous and vast seas, and shown them to navigators, except the changes and periodical appearances of the stars? And wise men have observed, 92 also, countless other circumstances, and have recorded them, conjecturing from the heavenly bodies the coming of calm weather and of violent storms, and the fertility or barrenness of crops, and the mild or violently hot summers, and whether the winters will be severe or spring-like, whether there will be droughts or abundance of rain, whether the flocks and trees will be fruitful, or on the contrary barren, and all such matters. For the signs of everything on earth are engraved and firmly fixed in heaven. 93 And besides this, golden pomegranates are attached to the lower parts of the tunic, reaching to the feet, and bells and borders embroidered with flowers. And these things are the emblems of earth and of water; the flowers are the emblems of the earth, since it is from the earth that they all rise and draw the strength to bloom. And the pomegranates mentioned above are the emblems of water, being named from the flowing of the stream. And the bells signify the harmony, and concord, and unison of sound of the different parts of the world. 94 And the arrangement is an excellent one; for the upper garment, on which the stones are placed, which is called the breast-plate, is a representation of heaven, because the heaven also is the highest of all things. And the tunic that reaches to the feet is in every part of a hyacinthine colour, since the air also is black, and holds second place, next in honour to the heaven. And the embroidered flowers and pomegranates are on the hem, because the earth and water have been assigned the lowest place in the universe. 95 This is the arrangement of the sacred dress of the high priest, being a representation of the universe, a marvellous work to see or to contemplate. For its appearance is designed to astonish, more than any embroidered work ever conceived by man, in its variety and costly magnificence; 96 and it also attracts the intellect of philosophers to examine its different parts. For God intends that the high priest should in the first place have a visible representation of the universe on him, in order that from the continual sight of it he may be reminded to make his own life worthy of the nature of the universe, and secondly, in order that the whole world may co-operate with him in the performance of his sacred rites. And it is entirely fitting that the man who is consecrated to the service of the Father of the world should also bring his son to the service of the one who fathered him. 97 There is also a third symbol contained in this sacred dress, which it is important not to pass over in silence. For the priests of other deities are accustomed to offer up prayers and sacrifices solely for their own relations, and friends, and fellow citizens. But the high priest of the Jews offers them up not only on behalf of the whole human race, but also on behalf of the different parts of nature, of the earth, of water, of air, and of fire; and pours out his prayers and thanksgivings for them all, looking upon the world (as indeed it really is) as his country, and for this reason he regularly implores and propitiates its governor with supplications and prayers, begging him to give a portion of his own merciful and humane nature to the things which he has created. 98 After he has given these precepts, he issues additional commandments, and orders him, whenever he approaches the altar and touches the sacrifices, at the time when it is appointed for him to perform his sacred ministrations, not to drink wine or any other strong drink, for four very important reasons: hesitation, and forgetfulness, and sleep, and folly. 99 For the intemperate man relaxes the powers of his body, and makes his limbs slower to move, and makes his whole body more inclined to hesitation, and forces it to become drowsy. And he also relaxes the energies of his soul, and so causes it forgetfulness and folly. But in abstemious men all the parts of the body are lighter, and so more active and mobile, and the outer senses are more pure and unalloyed, and the mind is gifted with a more acute sight, so that it is able to see things beforehand, and never forgets what it has previously seen; 100 in short, then, we must regard the use of wine as a most unprofitable thing for all the purposes of life, since by it the soul is weighed down, the outward senses are dimmed, and the body is enervated. For it leaves none of our faculties free and unhindered, but hinders every one of them, preventing it from attaining the object for which it is fitted by nature. But in sacred ceremonies and holy rites the harm is the most grievous of all, just as it is worse and more intolerable to sin against God than against man. This is probably why the priest is commanded to offer up sacrifices without wine, in order to make a difference and distinction between sacred and profane things, and pure and impure things, and lawful and unlawful things. 101 But since the priest was a man before he was a priest, and since he necessarily desires to indulge the appetites that prompt him to seek the union of love, he arranges for him a marriage with a pure virgin, and one who is born of pure parents, and grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, chosen for their excellence in both virtue and noble birth. 102 For God does not allow him even to look upon a harlot, or a profane body or soul, or upon anyone who, having put away her pursuit of gain, now wears an elegant and modest appearance, because such a woman is unholy because of her former profession and way of life, though in other respects she may be regarded as honourable, since she has purified herself of her former evil ways. For repentance for past sins is a thing to be praised; and no one else need be forbidden to marry her, only do not let her come near a priest. For the especial property of the priesthood is justice and purity, which from the very beginning of its creation to the end, seeks an utterly irreproachable concord. 103 For it would be sheer folly for some men to be excluded from the priesthood because of the scars which exist on their bodies from ancient wounds, which are the emblem of misfortune indeed, but not of wickedness; but for those persons who, not at all out of necessity but by their own deliberate choice, have made a market of their beauty, when at last they slowly repent, to be united to priests at once after leaving their lovers, and to come from brothels and be admitted into the sacred precincts. For the scars and impressions of their old offences remain no less in the souls of those who repent. 104 That is why it is wisely and truly said in another passage, that "One may not bring the hire of a harlot into the temple." And yet the money is not in itself liable to any reproach, except because of the woman who received it, and the action for which it was given to her. How then could one possibly allow women whose very money is regarded as profane and base, even though in its material and stamp it may be good and lawful money, to consort with priests? 105 So the regulations for the high priest are laid down precisely in this way: he is not allowed to marry a widow, whether one left desolate after the death of the man to whom she was betrothed, or one who has been divorced from a husband who is still alive, in order that the sacred seed may be sown for the first time in a field still untrodden and pure, and that his offspring may have no admixture of the blood of any other house. And second, so that the pair, coming together with souls that have not yet known any defilement or perversion, may easily form their dispositions and characters in a virtuous manner. For the minds of virgins are easily attracted and drawn over to virtue, since they are very ready to be taught. 106 But the woman who has had experience of another husband is very naturally less inclined to obedience and to instruction, since she does not have a perfectly pure soul, like thoroughly smooth wax, able to receive distinctly the doctrines that are to be impressed on it, but one that is to some degree rough from the impressions already stamped on it, which are difficult to erase, and so remain, and do not easily receive any other impression, or, if they do, make it confused by the irregularity of their own surface. 107 Let the high priest, therefore, take a pure virgin to be his wife; I say a virgin, meaning not only one with whom no other man has ever had relations, but one whose name has never been linked with any other man in an agreement of marriage, even though her body may be pure. 108 Besides this, instructions are given to the individual priests of lower rank concerning their marriages, which in most points are the very same as those given to the holder of the supreme priesthood. But they are permitted to marry, without penalty, not only maidens but also widows; not all widows, however, but those whose husbands are dead. For the law thinks it fitting to remove all quarrels and disputes from the life of the priests. For if the women had husbands still living, there might very likely be disputes arising from the jealousy that the love of men for women causes. But when the first husband is dead, the hostility that could be felt towards the second husband dies with him. 109 And for other reasons too he might have thought that the high priest ought to be of superior purity and holiness, in marriage as in other matters, and this may have been why God allowed the high priest to marry only a virgin. But to the priests of the second rank he relaxed something of the rigour of his regulations concerning relations with women, permitting them to marry women who have had experience of other husbands. 110 And besides these commands, he also defined precisely the family of the women who might be married by the high priest, commanding him to marry not merely a woman who was a virgin,⁠b but also one who was a priestess, the daughter of a priest, so that both bridegroom and bride might be of one house, and in a sense of one blood, and so display a most lasting harmony and union of disposition during the whole of their lives. 111 The others were also permitted to marry women who were not the daughters of priests, partly because their purificatory sacrifices are of only small importance, and partly because he was unwilling to disunite and separate the whole nation entirely from the order of the priesthood; and for this reason he did not prevent the other priests from intermarrying with any of their countrywomen, since that is relationship in the second degree; for sons-in-law are in the place of sons to their fathers-in-law, and fathers-in-law instead of fathers to their sons-in-law. 112 These, then, are the ordinances that were established concerning marriage, and concerning what closely resembles marriage, the procreation of children. But since destruction follows creation, Moses also gave the priests laws relating to death, commanding them not to let themselves be defiled for any and every person who might happen to die, and who might be connected with them through some bond of friendship, or distant relationship: but allowing them to mourn for six classes only, their fathers or their mothers, their sons or their daughters, their brothers or their sisters, provided that these last were virgins; 113 but he absolutely forbade the high priest to mourn in any case at all; and can we not say that this was rightly done? For as for the ministrations that belong to the other priests, one individual can perform them in place of another, so that, even if some are in mourning, none of the usual observances need be omitted; but no one besides the high priest himself is permitted to perform his duties; and for this reason he must always be kept free from all defilement, never touching any dead body, in order that, being always ready to offer up prayers and sacrifices on behalf of the whole world at suitable seasons, he may continue to fulfil the duties of his office without hindrance. 114 And apart from this consideration, the man who has been assigned to God, and who has become the leader of his sacred band of worshippers, ought to be detached and estranged from all created things, not so enslaved to love for parents, or children, or brothers as to omit or delay any one of those holy actions, which are by all means better done at once; 115 and God commands the high priest neither to tear his clothes over his very nearest relations when they die, nor to take from his head the ensign of the priesthood, nor in short to depart from the holy place on any pretext of mourning, so that, showing proper respect to the place, and to the sacred ornaments with which he himself is crowned, he may show himself superior to pity, and pass the whole of his life exempt from all sorrow. 116 For the law intends him to share in a nature superior to that of man, since he comes nearer to the nature of the Deity, standing, to tell the plain truth, on the border between the two, so that men may propitiate God through some mediator, and that God may have some subordinate minister by whom he may offer and give his mercies and kindnesses to mankind. 117 After saying this, he immediately goes on to lay down laws concerning those who are to use the first fruits, "If therefore, anyone among the priests," he says, "should be mutilated in their eyes, or their feet, or any part of their bodies, or if he has received any blemish, do not let him partake of the sacred ministrations because of the defects in him, but still let him enjoy those honours which are common to all the priests, because of his irreproachable nobility of birth." 118 "Moreover, if any leprosies break out and attack him or if any one of the priests is afflicted with any flux, do not let him touch the sacred table, nor any of the duties which are set apart for his race, until the flux stops, or the leprosy changes, so that he again resembles the complexion of sound flesh." 119 And if any priest by any chance at all touches anything unclean, or if he has impure dreams at night, as very often happens, let him touch nothing consecrated for all that day, but let him wash himself and wait for the following evening, and after that do not let him be hindered from touching them. 120 And let the sojourner in the priest's house, and the hired servant, be prevented from approaching the first fruits; the sojourner, because not everyone who is a neighbour shares a man's hearth and eats at his table; for there is reason to fear that some such person may cast away what is hallowed, using the pretence of some ill-timed kindness as a cloak for his impiety; for one should not give all men a share of all things, but only of the things suited to those who are to receive them; otherwise, the most beautiful and most beneficial of all things in this life, namely order, will be wasted away and destroyed by the most harmful of all things, namely, confusion. 121 For if in merchant vessels the sailors were to receive an equal share with the pilot of the ship, and if in ships of war the rowers and the mariners were to receive an equal share with the captain, and if in military camps the cavalry of the line were to receive an equal share with their officers, the heavy armed infantry with their colonels, and the colonels with the generals; again, if in cities the parties before the court were to be placed on the same footing as the judges, the committeemen with the ministers, and in short private individuals with the magistrates, there would be incessant troubles and seditions, and the equality in words would produce inequality in fact; for it is an unequal measure to give equal honour to persons who are unequal in rank or merit; and inequality is the root of all evil. 122 For this reason one must not give the honours of the priests to resident foreigners, just as one must not give them to anyone else, who in that case, because of their proximity, would be meddling in what is none of their business; for the honour does not belong to the house, but to the race. 123 In the same way, no one must give this sacred honour to a hireling, as his wages, or as a recompense for his service; for sometimes the one who receives it, being unholy, will use it for illegitimate purposes, making the honours due to purity of birth common, and profaning all the sacred ceremonies and observances relating to the temple; 124 and so the law entirely forbids any foreigner to partake in any degree of the holy things, even if he is a man of the noblest birth among the natives of the land, and irreproachable with respect to both men and women, so that the sacred honours may not be adulterated, but may remain carefully guarded in the family of the priests; 125 for it would be absurd for the sacrifices and holy ordinances, and all the other sacred observances pertaining to the altar, to be entrusted not to all men but to the priests alone, while the rewards for performing those things were common and liable to fall to anyone at random, as if it were reasonable for the priests to be worn out with labours and toils, and nightly and daily cares, but that the rewards for such pains should be common and open to those who do nothing. 126 But, he proceeds, let the priest who is his master give to the slave who is born in his house, and to him who has been purchased with money, a share of food and drink from the first fruits. In the first place, because the master is the only source of supply to the servant, and the master's inheritance is the sacred offices of humanity, by which the slave must necessarily be supported. 127 In the second place, because it is absolutely necessary that they not do unwillingly what has to be done; and servants, even though we may not like it, since they are always about us and living with us, preparing food, and drink, and delicacies for their masters beforehand, and standing at their tables, and carrying away the fragments that are left, even though they may not take any openly, will at any rate secretly appropriate some of the food, being compelled by necessity to steal, so that instead of one injury (if indeed it injures their masters to support them at their own expense), they are compelled to add a second to it, namely, theft; so that, like thieves, they may enjoy what has been consecrated by their masters who live irreproachably themselves; which is the most unreasonable thing possible. 128 Thirdly, one ought also to consider that the share of the first fruits will not be neglected merely because it is distributed to the servants, since they fear their masters; for this is sufficient to stop their mouths, preventing the arrogance of such persons from showing itself. 129 Having said this much, he next sets out a law full of humanity. If, he says, the daughter of a priest, having married a man who is not a priest, becomes a widow by the death of her husband, or if she is left childless while he is still alive, let her return again to her father's house, to receive her share of the first fruits which she enjoyed when she was a virgin; for to some degree and in effect she is now a virgin again, since she has neither husband nor children, and has no other refuge but her father; 130 but if she has sons or daughters, then the mother must necessarily be classed with the children; and the sons and daughters, being counted as members of their father's family, draw their mother also with them into his house. 131 The law did not allot any share of the land to the priests, so that, like others, they might derive revenues from the land and so have enough of the necessities of life; but granting them an excessive degree of honour, he said that God was their inheritance, referring to the things offered to God; and he did so for two purposes: first, to do them the highest honour, since they are thus made partners in those things which are offered up by pious men, out of gratitude to God; and second, so that they might have no business about which to trouble themselves except the offices of religion, as they would have had if they were forced to take care of their inheritance. And these are the rewards and preeminent honours that he assigns to them: 132 in the first place, that the necessary food for their support shall at all times be provided for them without any labour or toil of their own; for God commands those who are making bread to take a loaf from all the fat and all the dough as first fruits for the use of the priests, and by this legitimate instruction he provides for the men who set aside these first fruits as they proceed along the way that leads to piety; 133 for being accustomed at all times to offer first fruits of the necessary food, they will thus have an everlasting remembrance of God, and no greater blessing can be imagined than that; and it follows of necessity, that the first fruits offered by the most populous of nations must be very plentiful, so that even the very poorest of the priests must appear very wealthy in his abundance of all necessary food. 134 In the second place, he commands the nation also to give them the first fruits of their other possessions; a portion of wine out of each winepress; and of wheat and barley from each threshing floor. Likewise they were to have a share of oil from all the olive trees, and of eatable fruit from all the fruit trees, so that they might not live a squalid existence, having only barely enough of necessary food to support life, but that they might have sufficient for a certain degree of comfort and luxury, and so live cheerfully on abundant means, with all fitting elegance and refinement. 135 The third honour allotted to them is the assignment of all the first-born males of every kind of land animal born for the service and use of mankind; for these are the things which God commands to be given to the men consecrated to the priesthood; the offspring of oxen, and sheep, and goats, namely calves, and lambs, and kids, since they both are and are considered clean, both for the purposes of eating and of sacrifice, but he orders that money shall be given as a ransom for the young of other animals, such as horses, and asses and camels, and similar beasts, without disparaging their real value; 136 and the supplies this provides them are very great; for the people of this nation breed sheep, and cattle, and flocks of all kinds more than any other people, separating them with great care into flocks of goats, and herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep, and a vast quantity of other troops of animals of all kinds. 137 Moreover the law, going beyond all these enactments in their favour, commands the people to bring them the first fruits, not only of all their possessions of every description, but also of their own lives and bodies; for children are, so to speak, separable portions of their parents; but to tell the plain truth, they are inseparable, being of kindred blood, bound by the thoughts and memories of ancestors, invisible presences still alive among their descendants, and bound to them by the attractions of mutual goodwill, and by the indissoluble bonds of nature. 138 Even so, he also consecrates their own first-born male children in the manner of other first fruits, as a sort of thanks-offering for fertility and for a number of children both existing and hoped for, and wishing at the same time that their marriages be not only free from all blame but highly deserving of praise, since the first fruit that comes from them is consecrated to God; and keeping this in their minds, both husbands and wives ought to cling to modesty, and to attend to their household concerns, and to cherish unanimity, agreeing with one another, so that what is called a communion and partnership may truly be one, not only in word but also in deed. 139 As for the dedication of the first-born male children, in order that the parents may not be separated from their children, nor the children from their parents, he himself sets the value of these first fruits at a fixed sum of money, ordering everyone, both poor and rich, to contribute an equal sum, without any regard to the means of the contributors, nor to the vigour or beauty of the children who were born; but considering how much even a very poor man might be able to give; 140 for since the birth of children happens equally to the most noble and to the most obscure persons of the race, he thought it just to enact that their contribution should also be equal, aiming, as I have already said, particularly to fix a sum that everyone would be able to give. 141 After this he also appointed another source of revenue for the priests of no small importance, commanding them to take the first fruits of every one of the revenues of the nation, namely, the first fruits of the grain, and wine, and oil, and even of the produce of all the cattle, of the flocks of sheep, and herds of oxen, and flocks of goats, and of all other animals of all kinds; and anyone may guess from the vast population of the nation how great an abundance of these animals there must be; 142 from all these circumstances it is plain that the law invests the priests with the dignity and honour that belongs to kings; since he commands contributions from every kind of possession to be given to them as to rulers; 143 and so they are given to them in a manner quite the opposite of the way cities usually furnish them to their rulers; for cities usually furnish them under compulsion, and with great unwillingness and lamentation, looking upon the collectors of the taxes as common enemies and destroyers, and making all kinds of different excuses at different times, and neglecting all laws and ordinances, and only after all this shuffling and evasion do they contribute the taxes and payments which are levied on them. 144 But the men of this nation contribute their payments to the priests with joy and cheerfulness, anticipating the collectors, and cutting short the time allowed for making the contributions, and thinking that they are themselves receiving rather than giving; and so with words of blessing and thankfulness, they all, both men and women, bring their offerings at each of the seasons of the year, with a spontaneous cheerfulness, and readiness, and zeal, beyond all description. 145 And these things are assigned to the priests from the possessions of each individual, but there are also often special revenues set apart for them, exceedingly suitable for priests, which come from the sacrifices that are offered up; for it is commanded that two portions from two limbs of every victim shall be given to the priests, the arm from the limb on the right side, and the fat from the chest; for the one is a symbol of strength and manly vigour, and of every lawful action in giving, and taking, and acting: and the other is an emblem of human gentleness as far as the angry passions are concerned; 146 for it is said that these passions have their abode in the chest, since nature has assigned them the breast for their home as the most suitable place; and around it, as around a garrison, to secure them more effectively from capture, she has thrown a very strong fence called the chest, which she has made of many continuous and very strong bones, binding it firmly with nerves that cannot be broken. 147 But from the victims that are sacrificed away from the altar to be eaten, the law commands that three portions be given to the priest: an arm, and a jaw-bone, and what is called the paunch; the arm for the reason mentioned a little earlier; the jaw-bone as a first fruit of that most important of all the members of the body, namely the head, and also of uttered speech, for the stream of speech could not flow out without the motion of these jaws; for when they are set in motion (and very likely it is from this that they get their name) and are struck by the tongue, the whole organisation of the voice sounds at once; 148 and the paunch is a kind of excrescence of the belly. And the belly is a kind of stable for that irrational animal, appetite, which, being irrigated by much heavy drinking and gluttony, is continually washed with incessant provision of food and drink, and like a swine is delighted while wallowing in the mire; and for this reason a very suitable place indeed has been assigned to that intemperate and most improper beast, namely, the place to which all the superfluities are conveyed. 149 And the opposite to desire is temperance, which one must strive, labour and take pains to acquire by every means imaginable, as the very greatest blessing and most perfect benefit both to an individual and to the state. 150 Appetite, therefore, being a profane, and impure, and unholy thing, is driven beyond the territories of virtue, and is banished as it ought to be; but temperance, being a pure and unblemished virtue, neglecting everything which relates to eating and drinking, and boasting itself as superior to the pleasures of the belly, may be allowed to approach the sacred altars, since it brings forward the excrescence of the body as a memorial to remind it to despise all insatiability and gluttony, and everything that excites the appetites to this pitch. 151 And beyond all this he also orders that the priests who perform the offering of the sacrifices shall receive the skins of the whole burnt offerings (and they amount to an untold number, so this is no slight gift but one of the greatest value and importance); from this it is plain that although he has not given the priesthood a portion of land as its inheritance, as he has to others, he has yet assigned to them a more honourable and more untroubled share than any other tribe, granting them the first fruits of every description of sacrifice and offering. 152 And to prevent any of those who give the offerings from reproaching those who receive them, he commands that the first fruits should first of all be carried into the temple, and then orders that the priests shall take them out of the temple; for it suited the nature of God that those who had received kindness in all the circumstances of life, should bring the first fruits as thank-offering, and that he then, as a being in need of nothing, should with all dignity and honour bestow them on the servants and ministers who attend on the service of the temple; for to be seen receiving these things not from men but from the great Benefactor of all men is to receive a gift with no alloy of sadness in it. 153 Since, then, these honours are set out for them, if any of the priests are in any difficulty while living virtuously and irreproachably, they at once stand as our accusers for disregarding the law, even though they may not utter a word. For if we were to obey the commands which we have received, and if we were to take care to give the first fruits as we are commanded, they would not only have abundance of all necessary things, but would also be filled with all kinds of supplies to enable them to live in refinement and luxury. 154 And if at any time in the future the tribe of the priests is found to be blessed with a great abundance of all the necessaries and luxuries of life, this will be a great proof of their common holiness, and of their accurate observance of the laws and ordinances in every particular. But the neglect of some persons (for it is not safe to blame everyone) is the cause of poverty to those who have been dedicated to God, and, to tell the truth, to the men themselves as well. 155 For to violate the law is injurious to those who offend, even though it may be an attractive course for a short time; but to obey the ordinances of nature is most beneficial, even if at the time it may look painful and show nothing pleasant. 156 Having given all these supplies and revenues to the priests, he did not neglect those in the second rank of the priesthood either; and these are the keepers of the temple, of whom some are placed at the doors, at the very entrance of the temple, as door-keepers; and others are within, in the vestibule of the temple, so that no one who ought not to might enter it, either deliberately or by accident. Others, again, stand all around, having had the times of their watches assigned to them by lot, so as to watch by turns night and day, some being day watchmen and others night watchmen. Others, again, had charge of the porticoes and of the courts in the open air, and carried out all the rubbish, taking care of the cleanliness of the temple, and the tenths were assigned as the wages of all these men; for these tenths are the share of the keepers of the temple. 157 In any case, the law did not permit those who received them to make use of them, until they had again offered up as first fruits other tenths as if from their own private property, and had given these to the priests of the higher rank; only then did it permit them to enjoy them, and not before. 158 Moreover, the law allotted to them forty-eight cities, and with every city, suburbs extending two hundred cubits all around it, for the pasture of their cattle, and for the other necessary purposes that cities need. But six of these cities were set apart, three on the near side of the Jordan and three on the far side, as cities of refuge for those who had committed unintentional murder. 159 For as it was not consistent with holiness for one who had by any means whatever become the cause of death to any human being to come within the sacred precincts, using the temple as a place of refuge and as an asylum, Moses gave a sort of inferior sanctity to the cities above mentioned, allowing them to give great security, because of the privileges and honours conferred on the inhabitants, who were justified in protecting their suppliants if any superior power tried to use force against them, not by warlike preparations, but by rank, and dignity, and honour, which they had from the laws because of the venerable character of the priesthood. 160 But once the fugitive has got within the borders of the city to which he has fled for refuge, he must be kept close within it, because of the avengers waiting for him outside, the blood relatives of the man who has been slain, and who, out of regret for their kinsman, even if he has been slain by one who did not intend to do so, are still eager for the blood of the one who killed him, their individual and private grief overpowering their accurate notions of what is right. And if he goes out of the city, let him know that he is going out to certain destruction; for he will not escape the notice of any one of the slain man's relations, by whom he will at once be taken in nets and toils, and so he will perish. 161 And the limit of his banishment shall be the life of the high priest; and when he is dead, he shall be pardoned and return to his own city. Moses, having promulgated these and similar laws about the priests, proceeds to enact others concerning animals, namely, which beasts are suitable for sacrifice. 162 Of the creatures which are fit to be offered as sacrifices, some are land animals, and some are creatures that fly through the air. Passing over, therefore, the infinite varieties of birds, God chose only two classes out of them all, the turtledove and the pigeon; because the pigeon is by nature the most gentle of all those birds which are domesticated and gregarious, and the turtle-dove the most gentle of those which love solitude. 163 Also, passing over the innumerable troops of land animals, whose numbers are not easy even to ascertain, he selected these especially as the best--the oxen, and sheep, and goats; for these are the most gentle and the most manageable of all animals. At any rate, great herds of oxen, and numerous flocks of goats and sheep, are easily driven by anyone, not merely by any man, but by any little child, when they go forth to pasture, and in the same way they are brought back to their folds in good order when the time comes. 164 And there are many other proofs of this gentleness, the most evident being these: that they all feed on herbage, and that none of them is carnivorous, and that they have neither crooked talons, nor any projecting tusks or teeth whatever; for they lack all the incisor teeth in the front of the upper jaw: 165 and besides this, they are the most useful of all animals to man. Rams are the most useful for the necessary covering of the body; oxen, for ploughing the ground and preparing the arable land for seed, and for growing the crops that will later be threshed, so that men may partake of and enjoy food; and the hair and fleeces of goats, the one woven and the other sewn together, make movable tents for travellers, and especially for men engaged in military expeditions, whom their necessities constantly compel to stay outside of the city in the open air. 166 And the victims must be whole and entire, without any blemish on any part of their bodies, unmutilated, perfect in every part, and without spot or defect of any kind. At any rate, such great caution is used not only with respect to those who offer the sacrifices, but also to the victims which are offered, that the most eminent of the priests are carefully selected to examine whether they have any blemishes or not, and scrutinise them from head to foot, inspecting not only those parts which are easily visible, but all those which are more out of sight, such as the belly and the thighs, so that not even a slight imperfection escapes notice. 167 And the investigation is so accurate and minute not so much for the sake of the victims themselves as so that those who offer them may be irreproachable; for God designed to teach the Jews by these figures, whenever they went up to the altars to pray or give thanks there, never to bring with them any weakness or evil passion in their soul, but to endeavour to make it wholly and entirely bright and clean, without any blemish, so that God might not turn away with aversion from the sight of it. 168 And since, of the sacrifices to be offered, some are on behalf of the whole nation, and indeed, to tell the real truth, on behalf of all mankind, while others are only on behalf of each individual who has chosen to offer them; we must speak first of all of those which are for the common welfare of the whole nation, and the regulations with respect to this kind of sacrifice are marvellous. 169 For some of them are offered up every day, and some on the days of the new moon, and at the festivals of the full moon; others on days of fasting; and others on three different festival occasions. Accordingly, it is commanded that every day the priests should offer up two lambs, one at dawn, and the other in the evening; each of them being a sacrifice of thanksgiving; the one for the kindnesses which have been bestowed during the day, and the other for the mercies which have been granted in the night, which God is incessantly and uninterruptedly pouring upon the race of men. 170 And on the seventh day he doubles the number of victims to be offered, giving equal honour to equal things, since he regards the seventh day as equal in dignity to eternity, having recorded it as the birthday of the whole world. For this reason he has seen fit to make the sacrifice offered on the seventh day equal to the continuation of what is usually sacrificed in one day. 171 Moreover, the most fragrant of all incense is offered up twice every day in the fire, being burnt within the veil, both when the sun rises and sets, before the morning and after the evening sacrifice, so that the sacrifices of blood display our gratitude for ourselves as beings composed of blood, but the offerings of incense show our thankfulness for the dominant part within us, our rational spirit, which was fashioned after the archetypal model of the divine image. 172 And on the seventh day loaves are placed on the sacred table, equal in number to the months of the year, twelve loaves, arranged in two rows of six each, in accordance with the arrangement of the equinoxes; for there are two equinoxes every year, the vernal and the autumnal, which are each reckoned by periods of six months. At the vernal equinox all the seeds sown in the ground begin to ripen; about which time, also, the trees begin to put forth their fruit. And by the autumnal equinox the fruit of the trees has arrived at a perfect ripeness; and this period, again, is the beginning of seed time. Thus nature, going through a long course of time, showers gift after gift on the race of man, and the two sixes of loaves placed on the table in this way are their symbols. 173 These loaves also figuratively suggest that most useful of all virtues, temperance; which is attended by frugality, and economy, and moderation as so many bodyguards, on account of the pernicious attacks which intemperance and covetousness prepare to make upon it. For, to a lover of wisdom, a loaf is sufficient nourishment, keeping the body free from disease, and the intellect sound, and healthy, and sober. 174 But high seasonings, and cheesecakes, and sweetmeats, and all the other delicacies which the superfluous skill of confectioners and cooks concoct to cajole the illiterate, and unphilosophical, and most slavish of all the outward senses, namely, taste, which is never influenced by any noble sight, or by any perceptible lesson, but only by desire to indulge the appetites of the miserable belly, constantly engenders incurable diseases both in the body and the mind. 175 And with the loaves there is also placed on the table frankincense and salt. The frankincense is a symbol that there is no sweetmeat more fragrant and wholesome than economy and temperance, if wisdom is to be the judge; while salt is an emblem of the duration of all things (for salt preserves everything over which it is sprinkled), and also of sufficient seasoning. 176 I know that those men who devote themselves wholly to drinking parties and banquets, and who care only for costly entertainments, will make a mockery of these things and turn them into ridicule, miserable slaves that they are to birds, and fish, and meat, and all such nonsense, unable to taste true freedom even in a dream. And all such men are to be disregarded and despised by those who seek to live in accordance with the will of God, in a manner pleasing to the true and living God; who, having learnt to despise the pleasures of the flesh, pursue the delights and luxuries of the mind, having exercised themselves in the contemplation of the objects of Nature. 177 After he had ordered these things concerning the seventh day, he said that for the new moons it is necessary to offer ten whole burnt offerings in all: two young bulls, one ram, seven lambs. For since the month, in which the moon makes its way through its cycle, is perfect, he thought that a perfect number of animals should be sacrificed. 178 The number ten is the completely perfect number which he most appropriately assigned to the animals which have been mentioned: the two young bulls since there are two motions of the moon as it continually runs its double-course--the motion of waxing until full moon and the motion of waning until its conjunction with the sun; one ram since there is one principle of reason by which the moon waxes and wanes in equal intervals, both as it increases and diminishes in illumination; the seven lambs because it receives the perfect shapes in periods of seven days--the half-moon in the first seven day period after its conjunction with the sun, full moon in the second; and when it returns, it comes first to half-moon, then it ceases at its conjunction with the sun. 179 With the sacrificial victims he ordered that the finest wheaten flour mixed with oil be offered and wine in stipulated amounts for drink-offerings. The reason is that even these are brought to maturity by the orbits of the moon in the annual seasons, especially as the moon helps to ripen fruits; wheat and wine and oil--the most helpful substances for life and the most essential for use by humans--are suitably dedicated together with all sacrifices. 180 At the feast that begins the sacred month, double sacrifices are fittingly offered since the reason for it is double: one, since it is the new moon; the other, since it is the feast which begins the sacred month. Regarding the fact that it is the new moon it is distinctly stated that sacrifices equal to the other new moons are to be sacrificed. Regarding the fact that it is the feast which begins the sacred month, the gifts are doubled apart from the young bulls. For one rather than two is offered since the judge has thought it correct to use the indivisible nature of the number one instead of the divisible number two at the beginning of the year. 181 In the first season--he calls springtime and its equinox the first season--he ordered that a feast which is called "the feast of unleavened bread" be celebrated for seven days and declared that every day was equal in honor in religious services. For he commanded that each day ten whole burnt offerings should be sacrificed just as they are for the new moons, making the total number of whole burnt offerings apart from those dealing with the trespass offerings seventy. 182 For he thought that the same reason that governed the relation of the new moon to the month governed the relation of the seven days of the feast to the equinox that took place in the seventh month. As a result he declared sacred both the beginning of each month and the beginning of the seven months taken together, consisting of the same number of days as the new moons. 183 In the middle of spring the harvest takes place at which season thank offerings are offered to God from the field because it has produced fruit in abundance and the crops are being harvested. This feast is the most publicly celebrated feast and is called "the feast of the first produce," named etymologically from the fact that the first of the produce, the first fruits, are dedicated at that time. 184 We are ordered to offer two young bulls as sacrifices, one ram, and seven lambs--these ten are sacred whole burnt offerings--and in addition, two lambs as food for the priests which he calls "lambs of preservation" since food is preserved for humans through many and varied circumstances. For destructive forces frequently occur: some by heavy rains, some by droughts, some by other unspeakably great changes in nature; and again, some are humanly produced through the invasion of enemies who attempt to lay waste their neighbors' land. 185 Suitably then, the preservation offerings are offered to the one who has thwarted all plots as thank offerings. They are offered with loaves which, after the people have brought them to the altar and lifted them up to heaven, they give to the priests along with the meat of the sacrifice of preservation for a most appropriate sacred feast. 186 When the third season takes place in the seventh month at the autumnal equinox, at the beginning of the month, the feast which begins the sacred month named "the feast of trumpets" and which was discussed earlier is celebrated. On the tenth day the fast takes place which they take seriously--not only those who are zealous about piety and holiness, but even those who do nothing religious the rest of the time. For all are astounded, overcome with the sacredness of it; in fact, at that time the worse compete with the better in self-control and virtue. 187 The reputation of the day is due to two reasons: first, that it is a feast, and second, that it is purification and escape from sins for which amnesty has been given by the favors of the gracious God who has assigned the same honor to repentance that he has to not committing a single sin. 188 Therefore he declared that since it was a feast the sacrifices should be the same number as those of the feast which begins the sacred month: a young bull, a ram, and seven lambs. In this way he mixed the number one with the number seven and lined the end up with the beginning, for the number seven has been appointed the end of things and the number one the beginning. He added three sacrifices since it was for purification. For he ordered that two he-goats and a ram be offered. Then he said that it was necessary to offer the ram as a whole burnt offering, but to cast lots for the he-goats. The he-goat selected by lot for God must be sacrificed, but the other was to be sent out into a pathless and inaccessible desolate place carrying on himself the curses of those who had committed offenses, but who were purified by changes for the better and who have washed themselves from their old lawlessness with a new sense of loyalty to the law. 189 On the fifteenth day, at full moon, the feast which is called "the feast of booths" is celebrated for which the supplies of the sacrifices are more numerous. For during seven days, seventy young bulls, fourteen rams and ninety-eight lambs are sacrificed--all animals as whole burnt offerings. We are ordered to consider the eighth day sacred, a day which I must deal with carefully when the entire account of the feasts is thoroughly examined. On this day as many sacrifices are offered as on the feast which begins the sacred month. 190 The sacrifices which are whole burnt offerings and are joint offerings on behalf of the nation or--to speak more accurately--on behalf of the entire race of humanity have been addressed to the best of my ability. However, a he-goat accompanies the whole burnt offerings on each day of the feast. He is called "concerning sins" and is sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins. His meat is distributed to the priests for food. 191 What is the reason for this? Is it because a feast is a time of good cheer, and undeceiving and true good cheer is good sense firmly established in the soul, and this unwavering good sense is impossible to receive without a cure from sins and cutting off of the passions? For it would be out of place if each of the animals of the whole burnt offerings is sacrificed only when it is found undamaged and unhurt, but the mind of the sacrificer has not been purified in every way and cleansed by making use of washings and lustrations which the right reason of nature pours into God-loving souls through healthy and uncorrupt ears. 192 In addition the following ought to be said. These festal and holiday rests have in the past often opened up countless avenues to sins. For unmixed beverage and luxurious diets with excessive drinking arouse the insatiable desires of the stomach and also kindle the desires of the parts beneath the stomach. As these desires both flow and stream out in every way, they produce a surge of unspeakable evils using the fearless stimulant of the feast as a refuge to avoid suffering anything. 193 Knowing these things, he did not allow them to celebrate a feast in the same way as other peoples, but at the very time of good cheer he first commanded that they purify themselves by bridling the impulses of pleasure. Then he summoned them into the temple for participation in hymns and prayers and sacrifices so that both from the place and from the things seen and said through the most powerful of senses, sight and hearing, they might come to love self-control and piety. Last of all, he reminded them not to sin through the sacrifice for sin. For the one who is asking for amnesty for the sins he has committed is not so dominated by evil that at the very time he is asking for release from old wrongs he should begin other new ones. 194 After the lawgiver has given these commands with reference to these subjects, he begins to distinguish between the different kinds of sacrifices, and he divides the victims into three classes. The most important he makes a whole burnt offering; the next, an offering for preservation; the last, a sin-offering. And then he adapts suitable ceremonies and rites to each, aiming, and with real success, at what is at once decorous and holy. 195 And the distinction he makes is very beautiful and fitting, closely connected and in a sense naturally akin to the things themselves; for if anyone wished to examine closely why the first men chose to turn both to sacrifices to show their gratitude and to supplications, he would find two chief reasons for this conduct. First, it contributes to the honour of God, which ought to be sought for no other reason but for itself alone, since it is both honourable and necessary; and second, the benefits which have been poured upon the sacrificers themselves, as has been said before. And the benefit they gain is also twofold: a share in good things and deliverance from evils. 196 So the law has assigned the whole burnt offering as the sacrifice fit for the honour that suits God and belongs to God alone, requiring that what is offered to the all-perfect and absolute God must itself be entire and perfect, with no taint of mortal selfishness in it. But the law has also distinguished the sacrifice offered for the sake of men, since it visibly allows distinction, appointing it as a sacrifice for the share in blessings that mankind has enjoyed, and calling it a thank-offering for their preservation. And for deliverance from evils it has allotted the sacrifice called a sin-offering, so that these sacrifices very appropriately match these causes; 197 the whole burnt-offering is sacrificed for God himself alone, who must be honoured for his own sake and not for the sake of any other being or thing; and the others are for our sake: the thank-offering for our preservation, for the safety and improvement of human affairs; and the sin-offering for the cure of the offences the soul has committed. 198 We must now list the laws enacted about each sacrifice, beginning with the most excellent. The most excellent sacrifice is the whole burnt-offering. The law says, "In the first place the victim shall be a male, carefully selected for its excellence from all the animals which are fit for sacrifice, a calf, or a lamb, or a kid. Then let the one who brings it wash his hands, and lay his hands on the head of the victim. 199 And after this let one of the priests take the victim and sacrifice it, and let another hold a bowl under it, and, having caught some of the blood, let him go all around the altar and sprinkle it with the blood, and let him flay the victim and divide it into large pieces, after washing its entrails and its feet. Then let the whole victim, now become many things instead of one and one instead of many, be given to the fire of the altar of God." 200 These things, then, are contained in the explicit words of the command. But another meaning lies figuratively concealed under the enigmatic expressions. And the words used are visible symbols of what is invisible and uncertain. The victim to be sacrificed as a whole burnt offering must be a male, because a male is both more akin to domination than a female is and more closely related to the efficient cause; for the female is imperfect, subject, seen more as the passive than as the active partner. 201 And since our soul consists of two elements, the rational part and the irrational part, the rational part belongs to the male sex, as the inheritance of intellect and reason; but the irrational part belongs to the female sex, which is also the portion of the outward senses. And the mind is in every respect superior to the outward sense, as the man is to the woman; and the mind, when it is without blemish and purified with the proper purifications, namely, the perfect virtues, is itself the most holy sacrifice, wholly and in every respect pleasing to God. 202 Again, the hands laid on the head of the victim are a very clear symbol of irreproachable actions, and of a life that does nothing open to accusation but is lived in every respect in keeping with the laws and ordinances of nature; 203 for the law wants, first, the mind of the man offering the sacrifice to be made holy by training in good and useful doctrines; and second, his life to consist of the most virtuous actions, so that, as he lays on his hands, the man may speak freely out of his clean conscience and say, 204 "These hands have never taken any gift as a bribe to commit an unjust act, nor any share of what was gained by plunder or by greed, nor have they shed innocent blood, nor have they caused mutilation, insolent deeds or acts of violence, nor inflicted any wounds; nor, in fact, have they done anything at all open to accusation or reproach, but they have served in everything honourable and useful, everything honoured by wisdom, or by the laws, or by honourable and virtuous men." 205 And the blood is poured out in a circle all around the altar, because a circle is the most complete of all figures, and also so that no part at all is left empty and untouched by the libation of life; for, properly speaking, the blood is the libation of the life. So the law here teaches us symbolically that the mind, which always dances in a circle, always shows its desire to please God through every kind of word, intention and action it adopts. 206 And the command that the belly and the feet be washed is figurative and very expressive; for the belly figuratively signifies that the appetites, which are full of stains, intoxication and drunkenness, ought to be purified, since they are a most pernicious evil, existing, concocted and exercised to the great injury of the life of mankind. 207 And the command to wash the feet of the victim shows figuratively that we must no longer walk on the earth, but soar aloft and traverse the air. For the soul of the man who is devoted to God, being eager for truth, springs upward and mounts from earth to heaven; and, borne on wings, traverses the expanse of the air, eager to be ranked with and to move in concert with the sun, and moon, and all the rest of the most sacred and most harmonious company of the stars, under the immediate command and government of God, who holds a kingly authority that has no rival and that he can never be deprived of, and by which he justly governs the universe. 208 And the division of the animal into limbs shows plainly that all things are only one, or that they come from one and are dissolved into one; this some have called satiety and lack, and others combustion and arrangement: combustion, in accordance with the supreme power of God, who rules all other things in the world; and arrangement, according to the equality that the four elements all grant to one another. 209 And as I have investigated these matters, this has seemed to me a probable conjecture: the soul that honours the living God ought for that very reason to honour him not thoughtlessly or ignorantly, but with knowledge and reason; and our reasoning about God can be divided and partitioned, according to each of the divine faculties and excellencies; for God is both all-good and the maker and creator of the universe; and he created it with foreknowledge of what would happen, and being its preserver and most blessed benefactor, full of every kind of happiness; all of these are in themselves most dignified and praiseworthy, both separately and when seen together with their kindred qualities; 210 and we must speak in the same way of other matters. When you wish to give thanks to God with your mind, and to express your gratitude for the creation of the world, thank him for creating it as a whole, and for all its separate parts in their integrity, as if for the limbs of a most perfect animal; and by the parts I mean, for instance, the heaven, and the sun, and the moon, and the fixed stars; and secondly the earth, and the animals, and plants which spring from it; and next the seas and rivers, whether naturally springing from the ground or swollen by rain as winter torrents, and all the things in them: and lastly, the air and all the changes that take place in it; for winter, and summer, and spring, and autumn, being the seasons of the year, and being all of great service to mankind, are what we may call affections of the air for the preservation of all these things that are beneath the moon. 211 And whenever you give thanks for men and their fortunes, do not do so only for the race as a whole, but give thanks also for the species and most important parts of the race, such as men and women, Greeks and barbarians, men on the continent, and those who live on the islands; and if you are giving thanks for one individual, do not break up the thanks you express into gratitude for minute trifles and insignificant matters, but take in the broadest aspects: first of all, the body and soul he consists of, and then his speech, and his mind, and his outward senses; for gratitude uttered for each of these particulars cannot in itself be unworthy of God's hearing. 212 This is enough to say about the sacrifice of the whole burnt-offering. We must now go on in due order to consider the offering called the sacrifice for preservation; for with this one it does not matter whether the victim is male or female; and when it is slain, these three parts are especially selected for the altar, the fat, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys; and all the other parts are left to make a feast for the sacrificer; 213 and we must consider very carefully why these portions of the entrails are regarded as sacred in this case, and not pass over this point carelessly. Often, as I have considered this matter in my own mind and investigated all these commandments, I have wondered why the law selected the lobe of the liver, and the kidneys, and the fat, as the first fruits of the animals thus sacrificed; and did not choose the heart or the brain, though the dominant part of the man resides in one of these parts; 214 and I think also that many other persons who read the sacred scriptures with their mind, rather than merely with their eyes, will ask the same question. If, then, after considering the matter, they can find a more probable reason, they will benefit both themselves and us; but if they cannot, let them consider the cause we have found and see whether it stands the test; and here it is. Of all the powers in us, the dominant power alone is able to restrain our natural folly, and injustice, and cowardice, and our other vices, and does restrain them; and this dominant power dwells in one or the other of the parts of us mentioned above, that is, it is either the brain or the heart; 215 so the sacred commandment has decided that no one should bring to the altar of God, through which remission and complete pardon of all sins and transgressions are obtained, the vessel in which the mind once dwelt and from which it went out on the trackless road of injustice and impiety, turning aside from the way that leads to virtue and excellence; for it would be folly to suppose that sacrifices were meant not to bring forgetfulness of offences but to act as a reminder of them. This, it seems to me, is the reason why neither of those two parts of supreme importance, namely, the brain or the heart, is brought to the altar; 216 and there is a very suitable reason for bringing the parts that are commanded; the fat is brought because it is the richest part and the part that guards the entrails; for it envelops them and makes them flourish, and benefits them by the softness of its touch. And the kidneys are selected by command because of the adjacent parts and the organs of generation, which, living near them, they assist and co-operate with like good neighbours, so that the seed of nature may prosper with nothing near it standing in its way; for they are blood-coloured receptacles in which the moist part of the purification of the body's superfluities is separated from the body; and nearby are the testicles, by which the seed is irrigated. And the lobe of the liver is the first fruit of the most important of the entrails, by which the food is digested and, after being conveyed into the stomach, is diffused through all the veins, and so contributes to the durability of the whole body; 217 for the stomach, lying close to the gullet which swallows the food, receives it as soon as it has first been chewed and made smooth by the teeth, and so digests it; and the body in turn receives it from the stomach and performs the second part of the required service, for which nature has indeed destined it, giving off a juice that helps liquefy the food; and in the belly there are two channel-like pipes that pour chyle into the liver through the two channels originally placed in it. 218 And the liver has a twofold power: one of secretion and one of making blood. The secretive power secretes everything that is hard and difficult to digest, and removes it into the adjacent vessels of gall; and the other power, by means of its own innate flame, turns all the pure and properly strained portion of the food into life-like, vivifying blood; and presses it into the heart, from which, as has already been said, it is conveyed through the veins and by these channels diffused through the whole body, which it nourishes. 219 We must also add to what has been said here that the liver, being lofty and very smooth, is regarded because of its smoothness as a very transparent mirror, so that when the mind, retreating from the cares of the day (while the body is lying relaxed in sleep, and while none of the outward senses is any hindrance or impediment), begins to turn itself about and to consider the objects of its thought by itself without any interruption, looking into the liver as into a mirror, it then sees, very clearly and without any alloy, each of the proper objects of the intellect, and looking round upon all vain idols, and seeing that no disgrace can come to it, but taking care to avoid that and to choose the contrary, and, contented and pleased with all that it sees, it gains through dreams a prophetic sight of the future. 220 God permits the nation to use the sacrifice for preservation on two days only, commanding them to leave none of it until the third day, for many reasons: first of all, because everything ever placed on the sacred table ought to be used in due season, while those using it take care that it suffers no deterioration over time; but meat that has been kept naturally tends to become putrid, even though it may have been seasoned in the cooking; 221 secondly, because it is fitting that the sacrifices should not be stored up for food, but should be openly set out, to give a meal to all who need it, for once the sacrifice is placed on the altar, it is no longer the property of the person who has offered it, but belongs to the Being to whom the victim is sacrificed, who, being a beneficent and bounteous God, makes the whole company of those who offer the sacrifice partakers at the altar and messmates, only warning them not to regard it as their own feast, for they are only stewards of the feast, not the hosts; and the host is the one to whom all the preparation belongs, and it is not lawful to hide it away, preferring parsimony and ungenerous meanness to humanity, which is a noble virtue. 222 Lastly, this command was given because the sacrifice for preservation happens to be offered for two things, the soul and the body, to each of which the lawgiver has assigned one day for feasting on the meats, for it was fitting that the number of days allotted for this purpose should equal the number of parts in us designed to be sacred; so that on the first day, as we eat the food, we should be reminded of the salvation of our souls; and on the second day be reminded of the sound health of our bodies. 223 And since nature has appointed no third thing to be preserved, he has, with all possible strictness, forbidden keeping those meats for use on the third day, commanding that if, out of ignorance or forgetfulness, any portion happened to be left, it should be consumed with fire; and he declares that the man who has merely tasted it is to blame, saying to him, "Foolish man, you thought you were sacrificing, but you have not sacrificed; I have not accepted the unholy, unconsecrated, profane, unclean meats which you have roasted, gluttonous man; you have never, even in a dream, had a proper idea of sacrifice." 224 To this kind of sacrifice for preservation also belongs the one called the sacrifice of praise, which rests on the following principle. The man who has never fallen into any unexpected disaster at all, either in his body or in his external circumstances, but who has passed a tranquil and peaceful life, living in happiness and prosperity, being free from all calamity and all mishap, steering through the long voyage of life in calmness and serenity of circumstances, good fortune always blowing upon the stern of his vessel, is, of necessity, bound to repay God, who has been the pilot of his voyage, who has bestowed upon him untroubled salvation and unalloyed benefits, and, in short, all sorts of blessings unmingled with any evil, with hymns, and songs, and prayers, and also with sacrifices, and all other imaginable tokens of gratitude in a holy manner; and all these things taken together have received the one comprehensive name of praise. 225 The lawgiver has not commanded this sacrifice to be spread over two days like the one mentioned before, but has confined it to one only, so that these men, who receive ready benefits freely poured upon them, may offer their repayment freely and without any delay. 226 That is enough to say on these subjects. We must now proceed, in due order, to consider the third sacrifice, which is called the sin-offering. It varies in many ways, both in the persons and in the kind of victims offered: in the persons, that is, the high priest, the whole nation, the ruler in his turn and the private individual; and in the victim offered, whether it is a calf, a kid, a she-goat or a lamb. 227 A very necessary distinction is also made as to whether they are voluntary or involuntary, concerning those who, after they have erred, change for the better, confessing that they have sinned, and reproaching themselves for the offences that they have committed, and turning from then on to an irreproachable way of life. 228 So the sins of the high priest and of the whole nation are atoned for by animals of equal value, for the priest is commanded to offer up a calf for each. The sins of the ruler are atoned for by an inferior animal, but still a male, for a kid is the appointed victim. The sins of the private individual are atoned for by a victim of an inferior species, for a female, not a male, is sacrificed: a she-goat; 229 for it was fitting that a ruler should rank above a private individual even in performing sacred ceremonies: but the nation is superior to the ruler, since the whole must, at all times, be superior to the part. But the high priest is counted worthy of the same honour as the whole nation in purification and in begging forgiveness of his sins from the merciful power of God. And he receives equal honour, it seems, not so much for his own sake as because he is a servant of the nation, offering up a common thank-offering for them all in his most sacred prayers and most holy sacrifices. 230 And the commandment given on these matters has great dignity and admirable solemnity. "If," says the law, "the high priest has sinned unintentionally," and then it adds, "so that the people has sinned too," all but stating in so many words that the true high priest, not the one wrongly called so, has no share in sin; and if ever he stumbles, this will happen to him, not for his own sake, but for the common errors of the nation, and this error is not incurable, but one that is easily remedied. 231 When, therefore, the calf has been sacrificed, the lawgiver commands the sacrificer to sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times in front of the veil which is before the holy of holies, within the former veil, where the sacred vessels are placed; and after that to smear and anoint the four horns of the altar, for it is square; and to pour out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar, which is in the open air. 232 And to this altar they are commanded to bring three things, the fat, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, in accordance with the commandment given with reference to the sacrifice for preservation; but the skin and the flesh, and all the rest of the body of the calf, from the head to the feet, with the entrails, they are commanded to carry out and to burn in an open place, to which the sacred ashes from the altar have been conveyed. The lawgiver also gives the same command with respect to the whole nation when it has sinned. 233 But if any ruler has sinned he makes his purification with a kid, as I have said before; and if a private individual has sinned, he must offer a she-goat or a lamb; and for the ruler he appoints a male victim, but for the private individual a female, making all his other instructions the same in both cases: to anoint the horns of the altar in the open air with blood, to bring the fat and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, and to give the rest of the victim to the priests to eat. 234 But since some offences are committed against men and some against holy and sacred things, he has until now been speaking of those committed unintentionally against men; but for the purification of those committed against sacred things he commands that a ram be offered, after the offender has first paid the value of the thing to which the offence related, adding one fifth to the exact value. 235 And after setting out these and similar enactments about sins committed unintentionally, he goes on to lay down rules about intentional offences. "If anyone," says the law, "shall speak falsely concerning a partnership, or about a deposit, or about a theft, or about the finding of something which another has lost, and, being suspected and put to an oath, shall swear, and when he appears to have escaped all conviction at the hands of his accusers, shall himself become his own accuser, convicted by his own conscience within him, and shall reproach himself for the things he has denied and sworn falsely about, and shall come and openly confess the sin which he has committed, and implore pardon; 236 then pardon shall be given to such a man, who shows the truth of his repentance, not by promises but by works, by restoring the deposit which he has received, and by giving up the things which he has stolen or found, or, in short, anything of which he has in any way deprived his neighbour, paying also in addition one fifth of the value, as an atonement for the evil which he had done." 237 And then, after he has appeased the man he injured, the law goes on to say, "After this let him also go into the temple, to implore remission of the sins which he has committed, taking with him an irreproachable mediator, namely, that conviction of the soul which has delivered him from his incurable calamity, curing him of the disease which would cause death, and wholly changing and bringing him to good health." And it orders him to sacrifice a ram, and this victim is named expressly, as it is for the man who has offended in the matter of the holy things; 238 for the law treats an unintentional offence concerning holy things as equal in importance to an intentional sin against men; unless indeed we should say that this too is holy, since an oath is added to it, which, sworn in an unjust cause, it has corrected by a change for the better. 239 And we must note that the parts of the victim slain as a sin-offering that are placed on the altar are the same as those taken from the sacrifice for preservation, namely the lobe of the liver, and the fat, and the kidneys; for in a sense we may also speak of the man who repents as preserved, since he is cured of a disease of the soul, which is worse than the diseases of the body; 240 but the other parts of the animal are to be eaten in a different way, and the difference lies in three things: the place, the time and those who receive it. The place is the temple; the time is one day instead of two; and the persons who partake of it are the priests, and the male servants of the priests, but not the men who offer the sacrifice. 241 Therefore the law does not permit the sacrifice to be brought out of the temple, so that, if the man who repents has also committed some previous offence, he will not now be overwhelmed by envious and malicious men, with foolish dispositions and unbridled tongues, always lying in wait for reproach and false accusation; but it must be eaten in the sacred precincts, within which the purification has taken place. 242 And the law orders the priests to feast on what is offered in the sacrifice for many reasons; first of all, so that by this command it may honour the one who has offered the sacrifice, for the dignity of those who eat of the feast is an honour to those who provide it; secondly, so that they may believe more firmly that those who repent of their sins really do find God propitious to them, for he would never have invited his servants and ministers to share in such a banquet, if his forgiveness of those who provided it had not been complete; and thirdly, because no priest who is not perfect is permitted to take part in the sacred ceremonies, for they are rejected for the slightest blemish. 243 And God encourages those who have ceased to travel by the road of wickedness, as if they now, by means of the race of the priesthood, had received a pure purpose of life for the future, and had been sent out to obtain an equal share of honour with the priests. And it is for this reason that the victim sacrificed as a sin-offering is consumed in one day, because men ought to put off sinning, always slow and reluctant to approach it, but to do good with all possible haste and promptness. 244 But the sacrifices offered up for the sins of the high priest, or for those of the whole nation, are not prepared to be eaten at all, but are burnt to ashes, and, as has been said, the ashes are sacred; for no one is superior to the high priest or to the whole nation, or can, as a superior, intercede for them for the sins they have committed. 245 It is very natural, therefore, that the meat of this sacrifice is ordered to be consumed by fire, in imitation of the whole burnt offerings, and this in honour of those who offer it; not because the sacred judgments of God are given according to the rank of those who come before his tribunal, but because the offences committed by men of pre-eminent virtue and real holiness are counted as nearly akin in character to the good actions of others; 246 for as a deep and fertile soil, even if it sometimes yields a bad crop, still bears more and better fruit than one which is naturally unproductive, so in the same way the barrenness of virtuous and God-fearing men is fuller of excellence than the best actions that ordinary people perform by chance; for these men cannot bring themselves to do anything blameworthy on purpose. 247 Having given these commandments about every kind of sacrifice in turn, namely, about the burnt offering, and the sacrifice for preservation, and the sin-offering, he adds another kind of offering common to all three, in order to show that they are friendly and connected with one another; and this combination of them all is called the great vow; 248 and we must now go on to say why it received this name. When people offer first fruits from any portion of their possessions, wheat, or barley, or oil, or wine, or the best of their fruits, or the firstborn males of their flocks and herds, they actually dedicate the first fruits of what is clean, but pay a price for the value of what is unclean; and when they no longer have any materials left with which to display their piety, they then consecrate and offer up themselves, displaying an unspeakable holiness, and a most superabundant excess of love for God, which is why such a dedication is fittingly called the great vow; for every man is his own greatest and most valuable possession, and now he gives up and abandons even this. 249 And when a man has made this vow the law gives him the following commands: first of all, to touch no unmixed wine, nor any wine that is made of the grape, nor to drink any other strong drink at all that would destroy his reason, since during this period his reason too is dedicated to God; for everything that could lead to drunkenness is forbidden to the priests who serve in the sacred ministrations, who are commanded to quench their thirst with water; 250 in the second place they are commanded not to show their heads, so giving a visible sign to all who see them that they are not debasing the pure coinage of their vow; thirdly, they are commanded to keep their body pure and undefiled, so that they do not even approach their parents or their brothers if they are dead; for piety overcomes the natural goodwill and affection towards their relations and dearest friends, and it is both honourable and expedient for piety always to prevail. 251 But when the appointed time for their release from this vow has arrived, the law then commands the man who has dedicated himself to bring three animals to obtain his release from his vow, a male lamb, and a female lamb, and a ram; the first for a burnt offering, the second for a sin-offering, and the ram as a sacrifice for preservation; 252 for in some sense the man who has made such a vow resembles all these things. He resembles the sacrifice of the entire burnt offering, because he is dedicating to his preserver not only a portion of the first fruits of other things, but also of his own self. And he resembles the sin-offering, because he is a man; for no one born, however perfect, can wholly avoid committing sin. He resembles also the offering for preservation, because he has recorded that God the saviour is the cause of his preservation, and does not ascribe it to any physician or to any power of his own; for those who have themselves been born, and are liable to infirmity, are not able to give health even to themselves. Medicine does not benefit everyone, nor does it always benefit the same persons; and there are even times when it does them great harm, since its power depends on different things, both on the thing itself and on the people who use it. 253 And I am greatly impressed by the fact that of the three animals offered up in these different sacrifices, none is of a different species from the others, but all are of the same kind, a ram, and a male lamb, and a female lamb; for God wishes, as I said a little while ago, by this commandment to point out that the three kinds of sacrifice are closely connected with and akin to one another; because the man who repents is saved, and the man who is saved from the diseases of the soul repents, and because both of them eagerly hasten to attain an entire and perfect disposition, of which the sacrifice of the whole burnt-offering is a symbol. 254 But since the man has begun to offer himself as his first fruits, and since it is not lawful for the sacred altar to be polluted with human blood, and yet it was absolutely necessary for a portion to be consecrated, he has taken care to take a portion whose removal would cause neither pain nor defilement; for he has cut off the hair of the head, the superfluities of the natural body, as if they were the superfluous branches of a tree, and he has committed them to the fire on which the meat of the sacrifice offered for preservation will be suitably prepared, so that some portion of the man who has made the vow, though it is not lawful to place it on the altar, may still at least be combined with the sacrifice, burning as fuel for the sacred flame. 255 These sacred fires are common to all the rest of the people. But it was fitting for the priests also to offer up something on the altar as first fruits, and not to think that the services and sacred ministrations to which they have been appointed have exempted them from such duties. And the first fruits suitable for the priests to offer do not come from anything containing blood, but from the purest portion of human food; 256 for the fine wheaten flour is their continual offering; a tenth part of a sacred measure every day; half of which is offered up in the morning, and half in the evening, having been soaked in oil, so that no portion of it can be left for food; for God commands that all the sacrifices of the priests shall be wholly burnt, and that no portion of them shall be allotted for food. Now that we have discussed, to the best of our ability, the matters relating to the sacrifices, we will go on in due order to speak about those who offer them. 257 The law wants a person who brings a sacrifice to be pure, both in body and soul; --pure in soul from all passions, and diseases, and vices, which can be displayed either in word or deed; and pure in body from everything by which a body is usually defiled. 258 And it has appointed a burning purification for both these things; for the soul, by means of the animals which are duly fit for sacrifice; and for the body, by ablutions and sprinklings; about which we will speak shortly; for it is fitting to give pre-eminence in honour in every respect to the superior and dominant part of the qualities existing in us, namely, to the soul. 259 How, then, is the soul purified? "Look," says the law, "take care that the victim which you bring to the altar is perfect, wholly free of any kind of blemish, selected from many because of its excellence, by the uncorrupted judgments of the priests, and by their most acute sight, and by their continual practice gained from examining faultless victims. For if you do not see this with your eyes more than with your reason, you will not wash off all the imperfections and stains which you have imprinted on your whole life, partly as a result of unexpected events, and partly through deliberate purpose; 260 for you will find that this extreme accuracy in examining the animals figuratively signifies the improvement of your own disposition and conduct; for the law was not established for the sake of irrational animals, but for the sake of those who have intellect and reason." So the real object of care is not the condition of the victims sacrificed, that they may have no blemish, but the condition of the sacrificers, that they may not be defiled by any unlawful passion. 261 The body, then, as I have already said, he purifies with ablutions and sprinklings, and does not allow a person who has once washed and sprinkled himself to enter the sacred precincts at once, but tells him to wait outside for seven days, and to be sprinkled twice, on the third day and on the seventh day; and after this it commands him to wash himself once more, and then it allows him to enter the sacred precincts and to share in the sacred ministrations. 262 We must consider what great prudence and philosophical wisdom is displayed in this law; for nearly everyone else is sprinkled with pure water, generally in the sea, some in rivers, and others again in vessels of water which they draw from fountains. But Moses, having previously prepared ashes which had been left from the sacred fire (and how will be explained later), ordained that one should take some of them and put them in a vessel, then pour water on them, and then dip some branches of hyssop in the mixture of ashes and water and sprinkle it over those who were to be purified. 263 And the reason for this procedure is very probably this:--The lawgiver's intention is that those who approach the service of the living God should first of all know themselves and their own essence. For how can the man who does not know himself ever comprehend the supreme and all-excelling power of God? 264 Therefore, our bodily essence is earth and water, of which he reminds us by this purification, believing that this result--namely, to know one's self, and also to know what one is made of, what utterly valueless substances, mere ashes and water--is in itself the most beneficial purification. 265 For when a man is aware of this he will at once reject all vain and treacherous conceit, and, discarding haughtiness and pride, he will seek to become pleasing to God, and to win over the merciful power of the Being who hates arrogance. For it is beautifully said somewhere, "He who displays overproud words or actions offends not men alone but God also, the maker of equality and of everything else that is most excellent." 266 Therefore, to us who are amazed and stirred by this sprinkling, the very elements themselves, earth and water, can almost be said to speak distinct words, and to say plainly, we are the essence of your bodies; nature having mixed us together, divine art has fashioned us into the figure of a man. You were made of us when you were born, and you will be dissolved into us again when you die; for nothing by its nature is destroyed so as to become non-existent; but the end brings it back to those elements from which its beginnings come. 267 But now we must fulfil our promise and explain why this use of ashes is particularly fitting. For they are not merely the ashes of wood consumed by fire, but also of an animal particularly suited for this kind of purification. 268 For the law orders that a red heifer, which has never been brought under the yoke, shall be sacrificed outside the city, and that the high priest, taking some of the blood, shall sprinkle all the things in front of the temple with it seven times, and then shall burn the whole animal, with its hide and flesh, and with the belly full of all the entrails. And when the flame begins to pour down, it commands that three things be thrown into the middle of it, a stick of cedar, a stick of hyssop, and a bunch of saffron; and then, when the fire is wholly extinguished, it commands that a man who is clean shall collect the ashes, and shall again place them outside the city in some open place. 269 And we have accurately explained in another treatise, in which we discussed the allegories, what figurative meanings he conceals as symbols under these orders. It is necessary, therefore, for those who are about to go into the temple to partake of the sacrifice, to be cleansed in body and in soul, and in soul before body. For the soul is the mistress and the queen, and is superior in everything, since it has received a more divine nature. And the things which cleanse the mind are wisdom and the doctrines of wisdom, which lead to the contemplation of the world and the things in it; and the sacred chorus of the rest of the virtues, and honourable and very praiseworthy actions in accordance with the virtues. 270 Therefore let the man who is adorned with these qualities go in cheerful confidence to the temple that most truly belongs to him, the most excellent of all abodes, to offer himself as a sacrifice. But let the one in whom covetousness and a desire for unjust things dwell and display themselves cover his head and be silent, checking his shameless folly and his excessive impudence, in those matters in which caution is profitable; for the temple of the truly living God may not be approached by unholy sacrifices. 271 I would say to such a man: My good man, God is not pleased even if a man brings hecatombs to his altar; for he possesses all things as his own, and needs nothing. But he delights in minds which love God, and in men who practise holiness, from whom he gladly receives cakes and barley, and the very cheapest things, as if they were the most valuable, in preference to the most costly. 272 And even if they bring nothing else, when they bring themselves, the most perfect completeness of virtue and excellence, they are offering the most excellent of all sacrifices, honouring God, their Benefactor and Saviour, with hymns and thanksgivings; the former uttered by the organs of the voice, and the latter without the agency of the tongue or mouth, the worshippers making their exclamations and invocations with their soul alone, perceptible only by the intellect, and only one ear hears them, namely, the ear of the Deity. For human hearing does not reach far enough to perceive them. 273 And that this statement is true, and is not mine but nature's, is testified to some degree by the evident nature of the thing itself, which offers a manifest proof that no one can deny unless they cling to credulity out of a contentious disposition. It is also testified by the law, which commands two altars to be prepared, differing in the materials they are made of, the places where they are erected, and the purposes for which they are used; 274 for one is made of stones, carefully selected so as to fit one another, and unhewn, and it is erected in the open air, near the steps of the temple, and it is used for sacrificing victims that have blood in them. And the other is made of gold, and is erected in the inner part of the temple, within the first veil, and may not be seen by any human being except the priests who keep themselves pure, and it is used for offering incense; 275 from which it is plain that God regards even the smallest offering of frankincense by a holy man as more valuable than ten thousand beasts sacrificed by someone who is not thoroughly virtuous. For, I imagine, just as gold is more valuable than stones, and the things within the inner temple are holier than those outside, so in the same proportion the gratitude displayed by offerings of incense is superior to the gratitude displayed by the sacrifice of victims full of blood, 276 and so the altar of incense is honoured not only in the costliness of its materials, the manner of its construction and its location, but also in the fact that every day, before anything else, it serves the thanksgivings offered to God. For the law does not permit the priest to offer the sacrifice of the whole burnt offering outside before he has offered incense within at the earliest dawn. 277 And this command symbolizes nothing other than the fact that in the eyes of God what is valued is not the number of things sacrificed, but the purity of the rational spirit of the sacrificer.⁠c Unless, indeed, one can suppose that a judge who is anxious to pronounce a holy judgment will never receive gifts from any of those whose conduct comes before his tribunal, or that, if he does receive such presents, he will be liable to an accusation of corruption; and that a good man will not receive gifts from a wicked person, not even if he is poor and the other rich, and he himself perhaps actually needs what he would receive; and yet that God can be corrupted by bribes, God who is wholly sufficient for himself and has no need of anything created, and who, being himself the first and most perfect good thing, the everlasting fountain of wisdom, and justice, and of every virtue, rejects the gifts of the wicked. 278 And is the man who would offer such gifts not the most shameless of all men, if he offers a portion of the things which he has acquired by doing injury, or by rapine, or by false denial, or by robbery, to God as if he were a partner in his wickedness? Most miserable of all men! I would say to such a man, "You must be expecting one of two things. Either that you will be able to pass undetected, or that you will be discovered. 279 Therefore, if you expect to be able to pass undetected, you are ignorant of the power of God, by which he sees and hears everything at once. And if you think that you will be discovered, you are most audacious (when you ought rather to try to conceal the wicked actions you have committed) in bringing to light specimens of all your iniquitous deeds, and giving yourself airs, and dividing the fruits of them with God, bringing him unholy first fruits. And have you not considered that the law does not admit lawlessness, just as the light of the sun does not admit darkness; but God is the archetypal model of all laws, and the sun that can be perceived only by the intellect is the archetypal model of the sun visible to the senses, bringing forth visible light from its invisible fountains to give to whoever sees." Moreover, there are other commandments relating to the altar. 280 This injunction too is very admirably and properly set down in the sacred tablets of the law: the wages of a harlot are not to be received into the temple, since she has earned them by selling her beauty, having chosen a most infamous life for the sake of shameful gain; 281 but if the gifts which proceed from a woman who has lived as a concubine are unholy, how can the gifts that come from a soul defiled in the same way be any different, which has voluntarily abandoned itself to shame and to the lowest infamy, to drunkenness and gluttony, and covetousness and ambition, and love of pleasure, and to innumerable other kinds of passions, and diseases, and wickednesses? For I do not know what length of time could ever be enough to efface those defilements. 282 Indeed, time has very often put an end to a harlot's occupation, since, when women have outlived their beauty, no one approaches them any longer, their prime having withered away like the bloom of some flowers; and what length of time can ever transform the harlotry of the soul which from its youth has been trained in early and habitual incontinence, so as to bring it into good order? No time could do this, but God alone, to whom all things are possible, even those which among us are impossible. 283 Accordingly, the man who is about to offer a sacrifice ought to examine and see, not whether the victim is without blemish, but whether his mind is sound, and entire, and perfect. Let him likewise investigate the reasons for which he is about to offer the sacrifice; for it must be as an expression of thankfulness for kindnesses which have been shown to him, or else of supplication for the permanence of his present blessings, or for the acquisition of some future good, or else to avert some evil either present or expected; and for all these purposes he should labour to bring his reason into good health and sanity; 284 for if he is giving thanks for benefits conferred upon him, he must take care not to behave like an ungrateful man by becoming wicked, for benefits are conferred on the virtuous man; or if his object is to secure the permanence of his present prosperity and happiness, and to be able to look forward to the same in the future, he must still show himself worthy of his good fortune, and behave virtuously; or if he is asking to escape from evils, he must not commit actions that deserve correction and punishment. 285 The law says, "A fire shall be kept burning on the altar which shall never be extinguished, but shall be kept burning for ever." Rightly and fittingly, I think; for, since the graces of God which we now enjoy day and night are everlasting, and unceasing, and uninterrupted, and since the symbol of gratitude is the sacred flame, it is fitting for it to be kindled, and to remain unextinguished for ever. 286 And perhaps by this command the lawgiver intended to connect the old with the new sacrifices, and to unite the two by the duration and presence of the same fire by which all such sacrifices are consecrated, to demonstrate that all perfect sacrifices consisted in thanksgiving, although, depending on the variety of occasions on which they are offered, more victims are offered at one time and fewer at another. 287 But some are verbal symbols of things perceptible only by the intellect, and the mystical meaning which is concealed beneath them must be investigated according to the rules of allegory by those who are eager for truth. The altar of God is the grateful soul of the wise man, composed of perfect numbers, undivided and indivisible; for no part of virtue is useless. 288 On this soul the sacred fire is continually kept burning, preserved with care and unextinguishable. But the light of the mind is wisdom; just as, on the contrary, the darkness of the soul is folly. For as the light discernible by the outward senses is to the eyes, so knowledge is to reason in the contemplation of incorporeal things discernible only by the intellect, whose light is continually shining and never extinguished. 289 After this the law says, "On every offering you shall add salt." By this injunction, as I have said before, he figuratively implies everlasting duration; for salt is suited to preserving bodies, ranking second, inferior only to the soul; for as the soul is the cause of bodies not being destroyed, so too is salt, which keeps them together in the greatest degree, and to some extent makes them immortal. 290 This is why the law calls the altar thysiastērion, giving it a name of its own, of special honour, from its preserving (diatēreō) the sacrifices (tas thysias) in a proper manner, even though the flesh is consumed by fire; so as to give the clearest possible proof that God does not regard the victims as the real sacrifice, but the mind and willingness of the one who offers them, so that the durability and firmness of the altar may be ensured by virtue. 291 Moreover, it also ordains that every sacrifice shall be offered up without any leaven or honey, not thinking it fitting for either of these things to be brought to the altar. Honey, perhaps, because the bee that collects it is not a clean animal, since it is born, as the story goes, from the putrefaction and corruption of dead oxen, just as wasps spring from the bodies of horses. 292 Or else this may be forbidden as a figurative declaration that all superfluous pleasure is unholy, since it makes the things that are eaten sweet to the taste, but later inflicts bitter pains that are hard to cure, by which the soul must of necessity be agitated and thrown into confusion, unable to settle on any sure resting place. 293 And leaven is forbidden on account of the rising which it causes; this prohibition too has a figurative meaning, intimating that no one who comes to the altar should ever allow himself to be elated and puffed up by insolence; but that such people should keep their eyes fixed on the greatness of God, and so obtain a proper conception of the weakness of all created beings, even if they are very prosperous; and that, by cherishing correct notions, they may correct the arrogant loftiness of their minds, and discard all treacherous self-conceit. 294 But if the Creator and maker of the universe, who has no need of anything which he has created, not looking at the exceeding greatness of his own power and at his own authority, but at your weakness, gives you a share of his own merciful power, supplying the deficiencies with which you are overwhelmed, how do you think you ought to behave towards men who are akin to you by nature, and who spring from the same elements as yourself, when you have brought nothing into the world, not even yourself? 295 For, my fine fellow, you came naked into the world, and you will leave it naked again, having received the interval between your birth and death as a loan from God; and during that time what ought you to do but take care to live in communion and harmony with your fellow creatures, studying equality, and humanity, and virtue, repudiating unequal, and unjust, and irreconcilable unsociable wickedness, which makes the animal that is by nature the gentlest of all, namely, man, a cruel and intractable monster? 296 Again, the law commands that candles shall be kept burning from evening until morning on the sacred candlesticks within the veil, for many reasons. One is that the holy places may be kept illuminated without any interruption after daylight ends, always kept free from any share in darkness, just as the stars themselves are, for they too, when the sun sets, show their own light, never forsaking the place which was originally appointed for them in the world. 297 Secondly, so that at night too a rite akin to and closely resembling the sacrifices by day may be performed to give pleasure to God, and that no time or occasion fit for offering thanksgiving may ever be left out, which is a duty most suitable and natural for night; for it is not improper to call the blaze of the most sacred light in the innermost shrine itself a sacrifice. 298 The third reason, which is of the very greatest importance, is this. Since we are not only well treated while we are awake, but also when we are asleep, since the mighty God gives sleep as a great assistance to the human race, for the benefit of both their bodies and souls, their bodies because it relieves them of the labours of the day, and their souls because it lightens them of all their cares and restores them to themselves after all the disorder and confusion caused by the outward senses, and then enables them to retire within and commune with themselves, the law has very properly thought fit to distinguish the acts of thanksgiving, so that sacrifices may be made on behalf of those who are awake by means of the victims which are offered, and on behalf of those who are asleep, and of those who are benefited by sleep, by the lighting of the sacred candles. 299 These, then, and others like them, are the commandments established to promote piety, by express injunctions and prohibitions. But those that rest on philosophical suggestions and recommendations must be explained in this way; for the lawgiver, in effect, says, "Mind of man! God demands nothing of you which is either oppressive, or uncertain, or difficult, but only things that are very simple and easy. 300 And these are: to love him as your benefactor; and if you fail to do so, at least to fear him as your Governor and Lord, and to enter zealously upon all the paths which may please him, and to serve him not carelessly or superficially, but with one's whole soul thoroughly filled as it ought to be with God-loving sentiments, and to cling to his commandments, and to honour justice, by all of which the world itself continues constantly in the same nature without ever changing, and all other things which are contained in the world have a tendency towards improvement, such as the sun and the moon, and the whole multitude of the rest of the stars, and the entire heaven. But the mountains of the earth are elevated to the greatest possible height, and the open country, like other fusible essences, is spread over a body of wide extent, and the sea also changes so as to become united with sweet waters, and the rains also become in their turn similar to the sea. So each of those things is still fixed within the same boundaries within which it was originally created, when it was first set in regular order. But you shall be better by living quite irreproachably. 301 And which of all these things is either distressing or laborious? You are not compelled to cross unnavigable seas; or, when tossed about by the billows of midwinter and the force of contrary winds, to wander about the sea in every direction; or to travel on foot over rough and pathless byways, always dreading the haunts of robbers, or of the attacks of wild beasts; or to watch all night to protect your walls in the open air, while the enemy is lying in ambush for you, and threatening you with the very extremity of danger. But come, let us not bring up unpleasant topics in pleasant circumstances. We must use words of good omen when we speak of such advantageous matters. 302 The mind need only consent, and everything will be ready. Do you not know that both the heaven that is invisible to the outward senses and the heaven that is perceptible only to the intellect belong to God (the heaven of heavens, as we may call it); and again, that the earth and all that is in it belong to him, and the whole world, both the visible world and the invisible and incorporeal world, which is a model of the real heaven? 303 Nevertheless, out of the whole human race he selected, for their superior excellence, those who were truly men; and he elected them and thought them worthy of the highest possible honour, calling them to his own service, to that everlasting fountain of all that is good; from which he has showered down other virtues, and at the same time drawn out, for our enjoyment and to our greatest possible advantage, a drink that does more than nectar ever did, or at least no less, to make those who drink it immortal. 304 But those who have never banqueted on the labours of virtue are to be pitied and are altogether miserable; and those who have always been ignorant of the taste of moral excellence, when they could have feasted and luxuriated on justice and equality, have remained to the end the most miserable of all men. But these men are uncircumcised in their hearts, as the law expresses it, and because of the hardness of their hearts they are stubborn, resisting and restively breaking their traces; 305 whom the Lord reproves, saying, "Be circumcised as to your hard-heartedness;"⁠d that is, "eradicate the overbearing character of your dominant part, which the immoderate impulses of the passing hour have sown and caused to grow within you, and which folly, the wicked farmer of the soul, planted." 306 Again, it says, "Do not let your necks be stiff," that is to say, do not let your mind be unbending and self-willed, and do not let it take in that most blameworthy ignorance that comes of excessive perversity. Instead, let it cast off obstinacy and a sullen nature as an enemy, and change until it becomes gentle and ready to obey the laws of nature. 307 Do you not see that the greatest and most important of all the powers of the living God are his beneficent power and his punishing power? And his beneficent power is called God, since it is by means of this that he made and arranged the universe. And the other, the punishing power, is called Lord, and his sovereignty over the universe depends on it. And God is the God not only of men but also of gods; and he is mighty, being truly strong and truly powerful. 308 Yet, great as he is in excellence and in power, he feels pity and compassion for all who are most completely sunk in want and distress, not considering it beneath his dignity to be the judge in the causes of proselytes, and orphans, and widows, and disregarding kings and tyrants, and men in high command, and for this reason honouring with precedence the humility of the men mentioned above, I mean the proselytes. 309 These men have forsaken their country and the national customs they were brought up in, customs that were, however, full of the inventions of falsehood and pride, and, becoming genuine lovers of truth, have come over to piety; and having become, in all worthiness, suppliants and servants of the true and living God, they very properly receive the precedence they have deserved, finding the reward of their flight to God in the help they now receive from him. 310 And as for orphans and widows, since they have been deprived of their natural protectors, the orphans having lost their parents and the widows their husbands, they have no refuge at all to flee to and no help to hope for from man, being utterly destitute; and for this reason they are not deprived of the greatest hope of all, the hope of relief from God, who, because of his merciful character, does not refuse to provide for and care for people so wholly desolate. 311 "Let God alone, then," says the law, "be your boast, and your greater glory." And do not pride yourself either on your wealth, or on your glory, or on the beauty of your person, or on your strength, or on anything else of the kind that foolish, empty-headed people are apt to be elated by, considering that, in the first place, these things have no connection at all with the nature of good, and secondly, that they are liable to rapid changes, fading away, as it were, before they have had time to flourish for long. 312 And let us cling to the custom of addressing our supplications to him, and let us not, after we have subdued our enemies, imitate their impiety in the conduct they imagine to be pious, burning their sons and their daughters to their gods; not, indeed, that all the barbarians make a custom of burning their children. 313 For they have not become so utterly savage by nature as to bring themselves, in time of peace, to treat their nearest and dearest relatives as they would scarcely treat their irreconcilable enemies in time of war. But what they do in reality is inflame and corrupt the souls of their own children from the very moment they are out of swaddling clothes, not imprinting on their minds, while they are still tender, any true opinions about the one only and truly living God. So let us not be overcome by their good fortune, nor fall down before it and yield to it, as if they had prevailed because of their piety. 314 For present prosperity is given to many people as a snare, being only a bait to be followed by excessive and incurable evils. And it is very likely that even unworthy men may be allowed to succeed, not for their own sakes, but so that we who act impiously may be grieved and pained all the more intensely: we who, though born in a God-fearing city, brought up under laws that would instil every virtue in men, and instructed from our earliest youth in all the pursuits most honourable to men, neglect them all and cling only to the practices that deserve neglect, treating all good things as matters for amusement and regarding things fit only for sport as seriously good. 315 And if anyone, assuming the name and appearance of a prophet and appearing to be inspired and possessed by the Holy Spirit, were to seek to lead the people to the worship of the gods recognised in the various cities, the people should not listen to him, deceived by the name of prophet. For such a man is an impostor and not a prophet, since he has invented speeches and oracles full of falsehood, 316 even though a brother, or a son, or a daughter, or a wife, or a steward, or a firm friend, or anyone else who seems well-intentioned towards you should try to lead you down the same path, urging you to make merry with the crowd, and to approach the same temples and to adopt the same sacrifices; that person should still be punished as a public and common enemy, and we should think little of any relationship, and should report his urgings to all the lovers of piety, who would hasten with all speed and without any delay to inflict punishment on the impious man, judging it a virtuous act to be zealous for his execution. 317 For we should acknowledge only one relationship, and one bond of friendship, namely, a mutual zeal for the service of God, and a desire to say and do everything that is consistent with piety. And the bonds called blood relationships, which come from one's ancestors, and the connections that come from intermarriage and other similar causes, must all be renounced if they do not all hasten to the same end, namely, the honour of God, which is the one indissoluble bond of all united goodwill. For such men will lay claim to a more venerable and sacred kind of relationship; 318 and the law confirms what I say where it says that those who do what is pleasing to nature and virtuous are the sons of God, for it says, "You are the sons of the Lord your God," since you will be thought worthy of his providence and care on your behalf, as though he were your father. And that care surpasses the care shown by a man's own parents as far, I imagine, as the being who takes it surpasses them. 319 Besides this, the lawgiver entirely removes from his sacred code of laws all ordinances concerning initiations, and mysteries, and all such trickery and buffoonery; not wanting men brought up under the constitution he was giving to busy themselves with such matters, and, relying on mystic enchantments, to be led to neglect the truth and to pursue things that very naturally have night and darkness as their portion, passing over the things which are worthy of light and of day. Therefore let none of the disciples or followers of Moses either be initiated himself into any mysterious rites of worship or initiate anyone else; for both learning and teaching such initiations is an impiety of no slight order. 320 For if these things are virtuous, and honourable, and profitable, why do you initiates shut yourselves up in dense darkness, and limit your benefits to just three or four men, when you could bring the advantages you have to bestow into the middle of the market place, and benefit all men; so that everyone might share freely in a better and more fortunate life? 321 for envy is never found together with virtue. Let those who do harmful things be put to shame, and let them seek hiding places and recesses in the earth and deep darkness and hide themselves there, concealing their lawless iniquity from sight so that no one may see it. But let those who do what serves the common advantage have freedom of speech, and let them go by day through the middle of the market place where they will meet the largest crowds, to display their own way of life in the clear sunlight, and to do good to the assembled multitudes through the chief of the outward senses, letting them see the sights that are most delightful and most impressive, and letting them hear and feast on wholesome speeches that regularly delight the minds even of those who are not utterly illiterate. 322 Do you not see that nature has concealed none of her works that are deservedly celebrated and honourable, but has openly displayed the stars and the whole of heaven, to give pleasure to the sight, and to excite a desire for philosophy, and she also displays her seas, and fountains, and rivers, and the excellencies of the atmosphere, and the beautiful adaptation of the winds to the various seasons of the year, and of plants, and of animals, and, moreover, the innumerable species of fruits, for the use and enjoyment of men? 323 Would it not have been right, then, for you to follow her example and design and give those who are worthy everything necessary for their advantage? But as it is, very often no good men at all are initiated by them, while robbers and wreckers and bands of debauched and polluted women sometimes are, once they have paid enough money to those who initiate them and reveal to them the mysteries they call sacred. But let all such men be driven away and expelled from that city, and denied any share in that constitution in which honour and truth are reverenced for their own sake. That is enough on this subject. 324 But the law, being above all an interpreter of equal communion and courteous humanity among men, has preserved the honour and dignity of each virtue; not permitting anyone incurably sunk in vice to take refuge in them, but rejecting all such people and driving them far away. 325 So, since the law knew that a considerable number of wicked men often mingle in these assemblies and escape notice because of the crowds gathered there, he prevents this from happening here by excluding all who are unworthy from the sacred assembly in advance, beginning with those afflicted with the disease of effeminacy, men-women, who, having adulterated the coinage of nature, willingly let themselves be driven into the appearance and treatment of licentious women. He also banishes all those who have suffered any injury or mutilation in their most important members, and those who, seeking to preserve the flower of their beauty so that it does not quickly wither away, have reshaped the stamp of their natural manly appearance into the likeness of a woman. 326 The law also excludes not only all harlots, but also those who, born of a harlot, carry about with them the disgrace of their mother, because their original birth and origin have been adulterated. 327 For this passage (if any passage at all in the whole of scripture does) lends itself to an allegorical interpretation; for impious and unholy men are not of one kind only, but of many different kinds. For some people assert that the incorporeal ideas are only an empty name, with no share in any real fact, removing the most important of all essences from the list of existing things, though it is in fact the archetypal model of all the distinctive qualities of essence, according to which each thing is assigned to its proper species and limited to its proper dimensions. 328 The sacred pillars of the law call all these men broken; for the injury that term implies leaves a man destitute of all distinctive quality and species, and what is broken in this way is, strictly speaking, nothing but mere shapeless material. Thus, the doctrine which takes away species throws everything into confusion, and moreover brings back the lack of proper form that existed before the elements were brought into proper order. 329 And what can be more absurd than this? For it is out of that essence that God created everything, without, indeed, touching it himself, for it was not lawful for the all-wise and all-blessed God to touch materials which were all misshapen and confused, but he created them through his incorporeal powers, whose proper name is "ideas," and he exerted them so that every genus received its proper form. But this opinion has created great irregularity and confusion. For when it takes away the things through which the distinctive qualities exist, it at the same time takes away the distinctive qualities themselves. 330 But others, as if engaged in a contest of wickedness and eager to carry off the prizes of victory, go beyond everyone else in impiety, adding to their denial of the ideas a denial of the being of God as well, as if he had no real existence but were only spoken of because it benefits men. Others again, out of fear of the Being who appears to be present everywhere and to see everything, are barren of wisdom but devoted to upholding the greatest of all wickednesses, namely impiety. 331 There is also a third class, who have taken the opposite path, leading a multitude of men and women, old and young, filling the world with arguments in favour of a multiplicity of rulers, so as by this means to eradicate all notions of the one and truly living God from the minds of men. 332 These are the ones the law symbolically calls the sons of a harlot.⁠e For just as mothers who are harlots do not know who the real father of their children is, and cannot record him accurately, but have many men, or I might almost say all men, as their lovers and associates, so it is with those who are ignorant of the one true God. For, inventing a great number of beings whom they falsely call gods, they are blind to the most important of all existing things, which they ought to have thoroughly learnt from their earliest childhood, if not as the only thing, then at least as the first and greatest of all things; for what could be more honourable to learn than the knowledge of the true and living God? 333 The law also excludes a fourth class, and a fifth, both hastening to the same end, but not with the same intention; for, both being followers of the same great evil, self-will, they have divided the whole soul between them like a common inheritance, the soul consisting of a rational and an irrational part; and the one class has appropriated the rational part, which is the mind, and the other the irrational part, which is in turn subdivided into the outward senses; 334 so the champions of the mind attribute to it predominance and supreme authority in all human affairs, and affirm that it is able to preserve all past things in its recollection, and to comprehend all present things with great vigour, and to divine the future by probable conjecture; 335 for this is the faculty that sowed and planted all the fertile soil of the earth, in both the mountains and the plains, and that invented agriculture, the most useful of all sciences for human life. This is also the faculty that constructed ships and, by ingenious design, made dry land navigable with an ingenuity beyond all description; 336 this too invented letters, and music, and the whole range of encyclical instruction, and brought them to perfection. This is also the parent of philosophy, the greatest of all good things, and through its different parts it has benefited human life, leading through its logical branch to an infallible interpretation of difficulties, through its moral branch to the correction of the manners and dispositions of men, and through its physical branch to the knowledge of the heaven and the world. And they have also collected many other praises of the mind and dwell on them, always referring back to the kinds already mentioned, which we do not have the leisure to deal with at present. 337 But the champions of the outward senses also sing their praises with great energy and grandeur, listing in their speeches all the needs the senses supply, and they say that two of them, smell and taste, are the causes of living, and two, seeing and hearing, are the causes of living well; 338 thus, by means of taste the nourishment derived from food is conveyed into the system, and by means of the nostrils the air on which every living thing depends; for this also is a continual food, which nourishes and preserves men, not only while they are awake, but also while they are asleep. And the proof of this is clear: if the passage of the breath is obstructed for even the shortest time, so completely as to cut off the air that nature intends to be conveyed into the system from outside, death will necessarily and inevitably follow. 339 Again, of the more philosophical outward senses, through which living well is produced, the power of sight sees the light, the most beautiful of all essences, and through the light it sees all other things, the sun, the moon, the stars, the heaven, the earth, the sea, the innumerable varieties of plants and animals, and in short all bodies, and shapes, and odours, and magnitudes of every kind, the sight of which has given birth to excessive wisdom, and has bred a great desire for knowledge. 340 And even leaving aside the advantage derived from these things, sight also gives us the greatest benefits by enabling us to distinguish one's relatives, strangers and friends, and to avoid what is harmful and choose what is beneficial. Each of the other parts of the body has been created for appropriate uses, which are of great importance, as, for instance, the feet were made for walking, and for all the other uses to which the legs can be applied; the hands were created for doing, giving or taking anything; and the eyes, as a sort of universal good, are the reason the hands and feet and all the other parts of the body are able to act or move rightly; 341 and the evidence of those who have suffered any mutilation in these members proves this beyond all error, for they cannot truly be said to have either feet or hands, and the reality of their condition proves the correctness of their name, which, they say, the people of old gave them less as a reproach than out of compassion, calling them impotent in surprise at what they saw. 342 Again, hearing is the sense by which melodies and rhythm, and all parts and divisions of music are distinguished; for song and speech are salutary and wholesome medicines, the one charming the passions and the inharmonious qualities within us by its rhythm, and our unmelodious qualities by its melodies, and bridling our immoderate vehemence by its fixed measures; 343 and each of its parts is various and multiform, as the musicians and poets, whom we must believe, testify; and speech, checking and cutting short all the impulses which lead to wickedness, and healing those who are under the dominion of folly and misery, and strengthening those who are inclined to give way through cowardice, and subduing those who resist more obstinately, thus becomes the cause of the greatest advantages. 344 The advocates of the mind and of the outward senses, having put these arguments together, make gods of both of them, the one party deifying the former and the other the latter; both classes out of their self-will and self-conceit forgetting the truly living God. So the lawgiver very naturally excludes them all from the sacred assembly, calling those who would take away the ideas, broken in the stones, and those too who are utterly atheistic, to whom he has given the appropriate name of eunuchs; and those who teach the opposite system of theogony, whom he calls the sons of a harlot; and besides all these classes he also excludes the self-willed and self-conceited, some of whom have deified reason, and others have made a god of each of the outward senses. For all these men are hastening to the same end, even though they are not all driven by the same intentions. 345 But we, the followers and disciples of the prophet Moses, will never abandon our investigation into the nature of the true God; regarding the knowledge of him as the true end of happiness; and thinking that the true everlasting life, as the law says, is to live obeying and worshipping God; and in this precept it teaches us a most important and philosophical lesson, for in truth those who are atheists are dead in their souls, but those who are marshalled in the ranks of the true living God, as his servants, enjoy an everlasting life.

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.

1 There was once a time when, devoting my leisure to philosophy and to the contemplation of the world and the things in it, I reaped the fruit of excellent, desirable and blessed intellectual feelings, living always among the divine oracles and doctrines, on which I fed incessantly and insatiably, to my great delight, never entertaining any low or grovelling thoughts, nor ever wallowing in the pursuit of glory or wealth, or the delights of the body, but I seemed to be raised on high and carried aloft by a kind of inspiration of the soul, and to dwell in the regions of the sun and moon, and to keep company with the whole heaven and the entire universe. 2 At that time, therefore, looking down from above, from the air, and straining the eye of my mind as from a watch-tower, I surveyed all the things on the earth in unspeakable contemplation, and considered myself happy to have forcibly escaped all the evil fates that can attack human life. 3 Nevertheless, the most grievous of all evils was lying in wait for me, namely envy, which hates everything good and which, attacking me suddenly, did not stop dragging me after it by force until it had seized me and thrown me into the vast sea of political cares, in which I was tossed about, and still am, unable to keep myself afloat on the surface. 4 But though I groan at my fate, I still hold out and resist, retaining in my soul the desire for learning that has been implanted in it since my earliest youth, and this desire, taking pity and compassion on me, continually raises me up and eases my sorrow. And it is through this fondness for learning that I sometimes lift up my head, and with the eyes of my soul, which are indeed dim (for the mist of affairs, wholly inconsistent with their proper objects, has overshadowed their acute clear-sightedness), I still survey, as best I can, all the things around me, eager to absorb something of a life that is pure and unmixed with evils. 5 And if a brief period of tranquillity ever unexpectedly arises, a short calm and respite from the troubles of state affairs, I rise aloft and float above the troubled waves, soaring as it were in the air, and being, I might almost say, blown forward by the breezes of knowledge, which often urges me to flee away and spend all my days with her, escaping as it were from my pitiless masters, not only men but also affairs, which pour in on me from every side and at all times like a torrent. 6 Even so, I ought to give thanks to God that, though I am so overwhelmed by this flood, I am not wholly sunk and swallowed up in the depths. Instead I open the eyes of my soul, which in utter despair of any good hope I had believed to be wholly darkened already, and I am lit up with the light of wisdom, since I am not given up for the whole of my life to darkness. Behold, therefore, I venture not only to study the sacred commands of Moses, but also with an ardent love of knowledge to investigate each separate one of them, and to try to reveal and explain to those who wish to understand them things about them that the multitude does not know. 7 And since, of the ten commandments that God himself gave to his people without the agency of any prophet or interpreter, the five engraved on the first tablet have already been discussed and explained, as have all the particular injunctions included under them; and since it is now proper to examine and expound to the best of our power and ability the rest of the commandments, those found in the second table, I will try, as before, to fit the particular ordinances implied in them to each of the general laws. 8 The first commandment on the second table is "You shall not commit adultery," because, I suppose, pleasure has great power in every part of the world, and no portion of the world has escaped its dominion, neither of the things on earth, nor of the things in the sea, nor even of those in the air, for all animals, whether walking on the earth, or flying in the air, or swimming in the water, always rejoice in pleasure, and cultivate it, and obey its orders, and look to its eye and to its nod, obeying it with cheerfulness, however arrogant and proud they may be, and all but anticipating its commands through the promptness and unhesitating speed of their service. 9 So even pleasure that accords with nature is often open to blame, when anyone indulges in it immoderately and insatiably, like men who are insatiably voracious in their eating, even if they take no kind of forbidden or unwholesome food; and like men who are madly devoted to association with women, and who indulge themselves immoderately, not with other men's wives, but with their own. 10 Still, this sort of reproach, as it affects most men, belongs to the body rather than to the soul, since the body has a vehement flame within, which consumes the food which is offered to it, and soon seeks other food, because of the abundant moisture, the stream of which is conveyed into the most secret parts of the body, creating an itching, and stinging, and incessant tickling. 11 But those men who are frantic in their desires for the wives of others, and at times even for those of their nearest relations or dearest friends, and who live to harm their neighbours, trying to corrupt whole families, however numerous, and violating all kinds of marriage vows, and frustrating the hopes men have of having legitimate children, being afflicted with an incurable disease of the soul, must be punished with death as common enemies to the whole race of mankind, so that they may no longer live entirely without fear, free to corrupt other households, nor become teachers of others who may learn evil habits from their example. 12 The law has also laid down other admirable regulations concerning carnal relations; it commands men to abstain not only from the wives of others but also from certain relatives with whom it is not lawful to cohabit; 13 therefore Moses, detesting and loathing the customs of the Persians, repudiates them as the greatest possible impiety, for the magistrates of the Persians marry even their own mothers, and consider the offspring of such marriages the most noble of all men, and, it is said, think them worthy of the highest sovereign authority. 14 And yet what can be a more heinous act of impiety than to defile the bed of one's father after he is dead, which it would be right instead to keep untouched as sacred; and to feel no respect either for old age or for one's mother, and for the same man to be both the son and the husband of the same woman; and again for the same woman to be both the mother and wife of the same man, and for the children of the two to be the brothers of their father and the grandsons of their mother, and for that same woman to be both the mother and grandmother of the children she has borne, and for the man to be at the same time both the father and the uterine brother of the children he has fathered? 15 These enormities once took place among the Greeks in the case of Oedipus, the son of Laius, and the actions were committed out of ignorance and not voluntarily, and yet that marriage brought on such a host of evils that nothing was lacking to complete the sum of utter wretchedness and misery, 16 for there followed from it a continual succession of wars, both domestic and foreign, which were bequeathed like an inheritance from their fathers and ancestors to their children and descendants; and there were destructions of cities which were the greatest in Greece, and destructions of embattled armies, and slaughter of nations and of allies who had come to help either side, and mutual slaughter of the most gallant leaders in each army, and irreconcilable enmities about sovereignty and authority, and fratricides, by which not only the families and countries of the persons immediately concerned were utterly extinguished and destroyed, but the greater portion of the whole Greek nation also, for cities which were previously populous now became desolate and empty of their inhabitants, and were left as a memorial of the calamities of Greece, and a miserable sight for all who saw them. 17 Nor, indeed, do the Persians, among whom such practices are frequent, avoid similar evils, for they are continually involved in military expeditions and battles, killing and being killed, at times invading their neighbours and at others repelling those who rise up against them. And many enemies rise up against them from many quarters, since it is not the nature of the barbarians to rest in tranquillity; so before the current revolt is put down, another springs up, and no season of the year is ever spent in peace and quiet, but they are compelled to live under arms night and day, bearing for the greater portion of their lives hardships in the open air while serving in the camps, or else living in cities in the complete absence of any peace. 18 I refrain from mentioning the great and intolerable violence and pride of success exhibited by the kings, whose first contests, from the moment they assume sovereign power, begin with the greatest of all iniquities, fratricide, since they imagine that only in this way will they be safe from all attacks and treachery by their brothers, if they appear to have put them to death with reason and justice. 19 And it seems to me that all these things arise from the unhallowed connections of sons with their own mothers, because justice, who surveys all human affairs, takes revenge in this way on those who act improperly, for their wickedness; for not only do those who act this way commit impiety, but so do those who willingly give their assent to the lawless conduct of those who do such things. 20 But our law guards so carefully against such actions that it does not permit even a step-son, when his father is dead, to marry his step-mother, because of the respect he owes his father, and because the titles mother and step-mother are kindred names, even though the feelings of the soul may not be the same; 21 for the man who is thought to abstain from the woman who has been the wife of another man, because she is called his step-mother, will much more abstain from his own natural mother. And if anyone, out of regard for the memory of his father, shows respectful awe toward the woman who was formerly his wife, it is quite evident that he, because of the respect which he feels towards both his parents, is unlikely to contemplate any improper conduct toward his mother, since it would be downright folly for a man who strives to please one half of his family to appear to neglect the family as a whole. 22 Next comes a command not to marry one's sister, an excellent injunction that contributes very greatly to temperance and good order. Therefore the Athenian lawgiver, Solon, when he permitted men to marry their sisters by the same father, forbade them to marry those by the same mother. But the lawgiver of the Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, allowed marriages between brothers and sisters by the same mothers, but forbade those between brothers and sisters by the same father. 23 The lawgiver of the Egyptians, however, ridiculing the cautious timidity of the others as if they had established imperfect ordinances, gave free rein to lasciviousness, supplying in great abundance that most incurable evil of intemperance both to body and soul, and permitting men fearlessly and with impunity to marry all their sisters, whether by both parents or by one, or by either, whether father or mother, and not only sisters younger than themselves but even those older or of the same age; for twins are very often born, whom nature has severed and separated at their very birth, but whom incontinence and love of pleasure have invited to a union that ought never to be entered into, and to a most discordant agreement. 24 But the most sacred Moses, rejecting all those ordinances with loathing, as quite inconsistent and at odds with any praiseworthy kind of constitution, and as laws which encouraged and trained people to the most disgraceful of all habits, almost peremptorily prohibited any connection with a man's sister, whether by both parents or only by one of the two; 25 for why should anyone seek to deface the beauty of modesty? And why strip of all modesty the virgins for whom blushing is becoming? And why should anyone be willing to limit the associations and connections with other men, and to confine a most honourable thing within the narrow space of the walls of a single house, which ought rather to be extended and diffused over all continents, and islands, and the whole inhabited world? For intermarriage with strangers produces new relationships, in no way inferior to those that come from ties of blood. 26 For this reason our lawgiver has also forbidden other marriages, commanding that no man shall marry his granddaughter, whether she is his son's or his daughter's child; nor his niece; nor his aunt; nor his grandmother, by either father or mother; nor any woman who has been the wife of his uncle, or of his son, or of his brother; nor, again, any step-daughter, whether virgin or widow, whether his own wife is still alive or even after her death. For, in principle, a step-father is the same as a father, and therefore he ought to regard his wife's daughter in the same light as his own. 27 Again, he does not permit the same man to marry two sisters, either at the same time or at different times, even if he has put away the one whom he previously married; for while she is living, whether she is cohabiting with him or whether she is put away, or if she is living as a widow, or if she is married to another man, he still did not consider it holy for her sister to take the place of the one who had been unfortunate, teaching sisters by this injunction not to violate the requirements of justice towards their relations, nor to make a stepping stone of the disasters of one so closely united to them by blood, nor to accept or take pride in attentions from those who have shown themselves enemies of their relatives, or to return any kindnesses received from them. 28 For from such things arise bitter jealousies and quarrels, and enmities that scarcely allow reconciliation but bring on indescribable hosts of misfortunes; for that would be just as if the different members of the body were to abandon the harmony and fellowship in which they are put together by nature, and to quarrel with one another, which would necessarily cause incurable diseases and harms. And sisters are like limbs, which, although they are separated from one another, are nevertheless all adapted to one another by nature and natural relationship. And jealousy, which is the most grievous of all passions, is continually producing new, and terrible, and incurable harms. 29 Again, Moses commands: do not form a marriage with someone of another nation, and do not be seduced into complying with customs inconsistent with your own, and do not stray from the right way and forget the path which leads to piety, turning into a road which is no road. Perhaps you yourself will resist, if you have been trained from your earliest youth in the best possible instruction, which your parents have instilled into you, continually filling your mind with the sacred laws. And parents feel no slight anxiety and fear for their sons and daughters, for they may perhaps be lured by harmful customs instead of genuinely good ones, and so they may be in danger of learning to forget the honour belonging to the one God, which is the beginning and end of extreme unhappiness. 30 But if, the lawgiver continues, a woman who has been divorced from her husband on any pretext whatever and has married another has again become a widow, whether her second husband is alive or dead, still she must not return to her former husband, but may be united to any man in the world rather than to him, having violated and forgotten her former ties, and having chosen new allurements in the place of the old ones. 31 But if any man chooses to form an alliance with such a woman, he must be content to bear the reputation of effeminacy and a complete lack of manly courage and vigour, as if he had been castrated and deprived of the most useful portion of the soul, namely, that disposition which hates iniquity, by which the affairs both of houses and cities are placed on a good footing, and as having deeply stamped on his character two of the greatest of all iniquities, adultery and the employment of a pander; for the reconciliations that take place afterwards are proofs of both offences. Let him therefore suffer the appointed punishment together with his wife. 32 And there are particular periods affecting the health of the woman when a man may not touch her; during that time he must abstain from all connection with her, respecting the laws of nature. And, at the same time, he must learn not to waste his vigour in the pursuit of an improper and barbarous pleasure; for such conduct would be like that of a farmer who, out of drunkenness or sudden insanity, sowed wheat or barley in lakes or flooded torrents, instead of over the fertile plains; for seed should be cast on fields when they are dry, so that it may bear abundant fruit. 33 But nature each month cleanses the womb, as if it were some field of marvellous fertility, and the husband, like a skilful farmer, must watch for the proper season to fertilise it, so as to withhold his seed and abstain from sowing it at a time when it is inundated; for, if he does not do so, the seed, without his perceiving it, will be swept away by the moisture, not only having all its spiritual energies relaxed, but having them, in fact, utterly dissolved. These are the agents that form animals in that workshop of nature, the womb, and who perfect with the most consummate skill each separate one of the parts of the body and soul. But when the periods of illness I have spoken of cease, then he may with confidence shower his seed into the ground ready to receive it, no longer fearing that there will be any loss of the seed thus sown. 34 But those who plough a hard and stony soil deserve to be reproached. And who can these be but those who have joined themselves to barren women? For such men are only hunters after intemperate pleasure, and in the excess of their licentious passions they deliberately waste their seed. For what other reason could they marry such women? It cannot be in the hope of children, a hope they know must necessarily be disappointed, but rather to gratify their excess in lust and incurable incontinence. 35 So all men who marry virgins without knowing whether they will prove fertile or not, and who, when after a long time they perceive from never having any children that they are barren, do not then put them away, still deserve pardon, being influenced by habit and familiarity, which are motives of great weight, and being also unable to break through the power of those ancient charms which by long habituation are stamped upon their souls. 36 But those who marry women who have been previously tested by other men and ascertained to be barren, merely covet carnal enjoyment like so many boars or goats, and deserve to be inscribed on the lists of impious men as enemies to God; for God, being friendly to all the animals that exist, and especially to man, takes all imaginable care to secure preservation and duration to every kind of creature. But those who seek to waste all their power at the very moment of putting it forth are openly enemies of nature. 37 Moreover, another evil, much greater than that which we have already mentioned, has made its way into cities and been let loose on them, namely, the love of boys, which was once considered a great infamy even to mention, but this sin is now a subject of boasting not only to those who practise it, but even to those who suffer it, and who, being accustomed to bearing the affliction of being treated like women, waste away in both soul and body, not carrying about them a single spark of a manly character to be kindled into a flame, but having even the hair of their heads conspicuously curled and adorned, and having their faces smeared with vermilion, and paint, and things of that kind, and having their eyes lined underneath, and having their skins anointed with fragrant perfumes (for in such persons as these a sweet smell is a most seductive quality), and being well equipped with everything that makes for beauty or elegance, are not ashamed to devote their constant study and endeavours to the task of changing their manly character into an effeminate one. 38 And it is natural for those who obey the law to consider such persons worthy of death, since the law commands that the man-woman who adulterates the precious coinage of his nature shall die without redemption, not allowing him to live a single day, or even a single hour, as he is a disgrace to himself, and to his family, and to his country, and to the whole race of mankind. 39 And let the man who is devoted to the love of boys submit to the same punishment, since he pursues that pleasure which is contrary to nature, and since, as far as it depends on him, he would make the cities desolate, and void, and empty of all inhabitants, wasting his power of propagating his species, and moreover, being a guide and teacher of those greatest of all evils, unmanliness and effeminate lust, stripping young men of the flower of their beauty, and wasting their prime of life in effeminacy, which he ought instead to train to vigour and acts of courage; and last of all, because, like a worthless farmer, he allows fertile and productive lands to lie fallow, contriving to keep them barren, and labours night and day cultivating soil from which he never expects any produce at all. 40 And I suppose the cause of this is that among many nations there are actually rewards given for intemperance and effeminacy. At any rate, one can see men-women continually strutting through the market place at midday, and leading the processions in festivals; and, impious men as they are, receiving by lot the charge of the temple, leading the sacred and initiatory rites, and taking part even in the holy mysteries of Ceres. 41 And some of these persons have even carried their admiration of these delicate pleasures of youth so far that they have wanted to exchange their condition entirely for that of women, and have castrated themselves and have clothed themselves in purple robes, like those who, having been the cause of great blessings to their native land, walk about attended by body-guards, pushing down everyone they meet. 42 But if there were a general indignation against those who dare to do such things, like that felt by our lawgiver, and if such men were destroyed without any chance of escape as the common curse and pollution of their country, then many other persons would be warned and corrected by their example. For the punishments of those persons who have been already condemned cannot be averted by entreaty, and so act as no slight check on those who are eager to distinguish themselves in the same pursuits. 43 But some persons, imitating the sensual indulgences of the Sybarites and of other nations more licentious still, have in the first place devoted themselves to gluttony and drunkenness, and other pleasures affecting the belly and the parts adjacent to the belly, and then, when fully sated, have behaved with such extraordinary insolence (and it is natural for satiety to produce insolence) that in the insanity of their passion they have gone frantic and become so maddened that they no longer desire human beings, whether male or female, but even brute beasts, as, they say, in ancient times in Crete the wife of King Minos, Pasiphaë by name, fell in love with a bull, 44 and became very violent in her passion out of despair of being able to gratify it (for love that fails of its object usually grows to no ordinary degree), so that at last she told Daedalus, the most skilful of all workmen of his time, of the affliction by which she was overwhelmed. And he, being so ingenious that his contrivances could discover things no one else could, made a cow of wood, and put Pasiphaë into it through one of the sides, and the bull rushed at the wooden cow as if it had been an animal of its own kind. And Pasiphaë, becoming pregnant in due time, gave birth to an animal half man and half beast, called the Minotaur. 45 And it is very likely that there are other Pasiphaës as well, with passions equally unbridled, and that not only women but men too may fall madly in love with animals, from whom, perhaps, indescribable monsters may be born, being memorials of the excessive pollution of men; and perhaps because of this, those unnatural creations, unprecedented and fabulous monsters, will come to exist, such as hippocentaurs and chimaeras, and other similar animals. 46 But the holy laws of God take such great precautions against them that in order to prevent the possibility of men ever desiring any unlawful connection, it is expressly commanded that even animals of different kinds shall not be put together. And no Jewish shepherd will endeavour to cross a sheep with a he-goat, or a ram with a she-goat, or a cow with a horse; and if he does, he must pay the penalty as one who breaks a solemn law of nature, which desires to keep the original kinds of animals free from all spurious mixture. 47 And some persons prefer mules to every other kind of animal for the yoke, since their bodies are very compact, and are very strong and powerful; and accordingly, in the pastures and stalls where they keep their horses, they also keep asses of an extraordinary size, which they call celones, in order that they may breed with the mares; and then the mares produce a mixed animal, half horse and half ass, and since Moses knew that its production was wholly contrary to nature, he forbade its existence with all his might by a general injunction that no union or combination between different kinds of animals should on any account be permitted. 48 So in this way he guarded against those evils in a manner suited to and consistent with nature; and from far off, as from a watchtower, he admonished men and kept them in the straight path, so that both men and women, learning from his precepts, might abstain from unlawful connections. 49 If, therefore, a man seeks to indulge himself with a quadruped, or if a woman surrenders herself to a quadruped, they shall all die, both the man or woman and the quadruped. The human beings, because they have gone beyond even the bounds of intemperance itself, becoming discoverers of unprecedented appetites, and because with their new inventions they have introduced most detestable pleasures, the very mention of which is infamous; and the beasts shall die, because they have been subservient to such iniquities, and also to prevent them from bearing or siring anything intolerable, as such pollutions would naturally produce. 50 Moreover, those who care even slightly for what is fitting would never use such animals for any purpose in life, but would reject and abominate them, loathing their very sight, and thinking that whatever they touched would at once become impure and polluted. And it is not right that things of no use to life should live at all, since they are only a superfluous burden on the earth, as someone has called them. 51 Again, according to the injunctions of the sacred scriptures the constitution of the law does not recognise a harlot, since she is a person alienated from good order, and modesty, and chastity, and all other virtues, who has filled the souls both of men and women with intemperance, polluting the immortal beauty of the mind, and honouring above it the short-lived, perishable beauty of the body, prostituting herself to every chance comer, and selling her beauty as if it were some commodity in the market, doing and saying everything to catch the young men. And she excites her lovers to contests with one another, offering herself as the most disgraceful prize for those who gain the victory. Let her therefore be stoned as an injury and a harm to the whole state, and a common pollution of it, having corrupted the graces of nature, which she ought to have adorned further by her own excellence. 52 The law has pronounced all acts of adultery, if caught in the act, or if proved by undeniable evidence, liable to the punishment of death; but cases in which guilt is only suspected it chooses not to have investigated by men; instead it brings them before the tribunal of nature; since men are able to judge what is visible, but God can also judge what is unseen, since he alone is able to behold the soul distinctly, 53 therefore he says to the man who suspects such a thing, "Write an accusation, and go up to the holy city with your wife, and standing before the judges, lay bare the passion of suspicion which affects you, not like a false accuser or treacherous enemy, seeking to gain the victory by any means whatever, but as a man would who wishes to ascertain the truth accurately without any sophistry." 54 And the woman, having incurred two dangers, one to her life and the other to her reputation, whose loss is more grievous than any kind of death, shall judge the matter within herself; and if she is pure, let her make her defence with confidence; but if she is convicted by her own conscience, let her cover her face, making her modesty the veil for her iniquities, for persisting in her impudence is the very height of wickedness. 55 But if the charge which is made against her is contested, and if the evidence is doubtful, inclining to neither side, then let the two parties go up to the temple, and let the man stand in front of the altar, in the presence of the priest for the day, and then let him state his suspicions and his grounds for them, and let him produce and offer some barley flour, as a kind of offering on behalf of his wife, to prove that he accuses her, not out of insult, but with an honest intention, because he has a reasonable doubt. 56 And the priest shall take the barley and offer it to the woman, and shall take away from her the head-dress on her head, so that she may be judged with her head bare, and deprived of the symbol of modesty, which all completely blameless women are accustomed to wear; and no oil shall be used, nor any frankincense, as in the case of other sacrifices, because the sacrifice now offered is performed not on a joyful occasion but on a very grievous one. 57 And the reason why the flour is to be made of barley is, perhaps, because the food which is made of barley is of a somewhat ambiguous character, and is suited for the use both of irrational animals and of needy men; and is therefore a sign that a woman who has committed adultery differs in no respect from the beasts, whose connections with one another are promiscuous and incessant; but a woman who is free of all such accusations is devoted to the way of life that befits human beings. 58 Then the law goes on to say that the priest shall take an earthen vessel and pour into it pure water drawn from a spring, and shall also bring a lump of clay from the ground of the temple, which, I think, also carries a symbolic reference to the search for truth; for the earthenware vessel is appropriate to the commission of adultery because it is easily broken, and death is the punishment appointed for adulterers; but the earth and the water are appropriate to the purging of the accusation, since the origin, increase and perfection of all things take place through them: 59 and so it was very proper for the lawgiver to mark them both with epithets, saying that the water which the priest was to take must be pure and living water, since a blameless woman is pure in her life, and deserves to live; and the earth too is to be taken, not from just any spot, but from the soil of the ground of the temple, which must necessarily be most excellent, just as a modest woman is. 60 And when all these things have been prepared, the woman with her head uncovered, bearing the barley flour in her hand, as already specified, shall come forward; and the priest standing opposite to her and holding the earthenware vessel that holds the water and the earth, shall speak as follows: 61 "If you have not transgressed the laws of your marriage, and if no other man has been associated with you, so that you have not violated the rights of the man who is joined to you by law, you are blameless and innocent; but if you have neglected your husband and have followed empty appetites, either loving someone yourself or yielding to some lover, betraying your nearest and dearest connections, and adulterating them by a spurious mixture, then learn that you are deservedly liable to every kind of curse, the proofs of which you will exhibit on your body. Come, then, and drink the draught of conviction, which will uncover and lay bare all your hidden and secret actions." 62 Then the priest shall write these words on a paper and dip it in the water which is in the earthenware vessel, and give it to the woman. And she shall drink it and depart, awaiting the reward of her modesty or the extreme penalty of her incontinence; for if she has been falsely accused she may hope for seed and children, setting aside all fears and anxieties about barrenness and childlessness. But if she is guilty, a great weight and bulk will come upon her as her belly swells and fills, and a terribly evil condition of her womb will afflict her, since she did not choose to keep it pure for her husband, who had married her according to the laws of her nation. 63 And the law takes such great pains to prevent any irregularity in marriages, that even in the case of husbands and wives who have come together for legitimate embraces, in strict accordance with the laws of marriage, after they have risen from their beds it does not allow them to touch anything until they have performed washings and ablutions; keeping them very far from adultery and from all accusations referring to adultery. 64 But if anyone does violence to a widow after her husband is dead, or after she has otherwise been divorced from him, and defile her, committing a lighter offence than adultery, perhaps about half as serious, he shall not be liable to the death penalty, but he shall be impeached for violence, and insolence, and intemperance, since he has adopted the most infamous conduct as if it were the most creditable; and the tribunal of the judge shall decide and condemn him to the penalty he deserves to suffer. 65 Again, seduction is an offence which is similar and nearly related to adultery, since both spring from one common mother, incontinence. But some people who are in the habit of dignifying shameful actions with specious names call this love, blushing to admit the real truth about its character. Nevertheless, though it may be akin to adultery, it is not similar to it in every respect, because it is an offence that does not spread so as to affect many families, as is the case with adultery, but it is limited to one house alone, that of the virgin who has been seduced. 66 Therefore we must say to a man who desires to enjoy a virgin who is a free-born citizen, "My good man, reject your shameless rashness and audacity, the sources of treachery and faithlessness, and all such feelings, and do not let yourself be shown to be wicked, either openly or secretly, 67 but if, indeed, you have any legitimate feeling of love for the maiden in your soul, go to her parents, if they are alive, and if they are not, then go to her brother or to her guardians, or to any other persons who happen to be her protectors, reveal to them your feelings for her, as a free-born man should, and ask for her in marriage, and implore them not to consider you unworthy. 68 "For none of those entrusted with the guardianship of the maiden could be so base as to oppose an earnest and persevering entreaty, and especially to refuse you, since you would be found, by strict examination, not to have falsely pretended a passion which you do not feel, or to have conceived only a superficial love for her, but one which is genuine and thoroughly established." 69 But if anyone, insane and frantic, repudiating and discarding all the suggestions of reason, were to submit himself wholly to passion and desire as his masters, and, as people say, regarding might as stronger than right, were to ravish and seduce women, treating free-born women as slaves, and doing acts of war in time of peace, let such a man be led before the judges. 70 And if the young woman who has been forced has a father, let him take counsel and deal with the ravisher about marrying her; then if he refuses to do so, he shall give the young woman a dowry for another husband, being fined in a sum of money sufficient for this purpose. But if he consents and registers her as his wife, let him marry her at once without any delay, confessing a second time that he owes her the same dowry, and let him not be permitted to delay or evade the fulfilment of this marriage; both so that his conduct may appear to arise from lawful love rather than lust, and so that the mishap of her first connection with a man may be remedied by a firm marriage, which nothing but death shall ever separate. 71 But if the young woman is an orphan and has no father, then let her be asked by the judges whether she is willing to take this man for her husband or not; and whether she agrees or refuses, let her still have the same dowry that the man would have agreed to give her if her father were still alive. 72 Some people think that a licensed concubinage is an offence somewhere between seduction and adultery, when the two parties come together, and agree to live as man and wife by a certain agreement, but before the marriage ceremony is completed, some other man meets the woman, or forces her, and has relations with her; but in my opinion this also is a kind of adultery; for such an agreement as is here mentioned is equivalent to a marriage, for in it the names of the woman and of the man are both registered, along with all the other things that were to lead to their union; 73 and so the law orders both parties to be stoned if with one and the same mind they agree together to commit adultery; for unless they both set out with the same intention, they cannot be regarded as equal in iniquity, since they would not both have sinned to an equal degree; 74 in any case, the offence is often made greater or lesser by the place where it is committed. For, it seems, such an offence is greater if it is committed in a city, and less if it is committed outside the walls of any city, in a wilderness; for in such a place there is no one to help the maiden, even though she may have said and done everything that could help keep her virginity unattacked and undefiled; but in a city there are halls of council, and courts of justice, and great assemblies of generals, and aediles, and rulers of the markets, and other magistrates; and besides all these there is the populace; 75 for there is in the soul of every man, even though he may be a private individual, a feeling hostile to iniquity which, when it is roused, makes the man who holds it a champion for the moment, and a spontaneous and voluntary defender of the person who appears to be unjustly treated. 76 Therefore justice in every case pursues the man who has committed violence, nor is his iniquity excused by the difference of the place, so that no plea can defend him from the consequences of his violence and lawlessness; but as I have said before, there will be compassion and pardon for the young woman in the one case, and in the other, inexorable punishment will fall on her. 77 And in her case the judge must examine the matter very carefully, not referring everything to the place or making everything depend on it; for it is possible that a woman may be ravished against her will even in the middle of the city; and on the other hand, even outside the city, she may have voluntarily given herself up to an illicit connection. So the law, making a very careful and admirably conceived defence on behalf of a young woman ravished in the wilderness, says, "for the young woman cried out, and there was no one to help her;" so that if she neither cried out nor resisted, but willingly consented to her ravisher, she must be regarded as guilty, having merely put forward the place as a sophistical excuse to make it appear that she had been ravished. 78 And yet in the city what use are her efforts to a young woman, who is willing to do everything for the sake of preserving her own reputation, but who is unable to succeed because of the strength of the man who is assaulting her? for what help could she get from those who live in the same house if he were to bind her with ropes, or to gag her mouth, so that she could not utter even a word; for in a sense she is then, though living in a city, really in a wilderness, since she is without any protection; but if she is in a wilderness, and yet willingly gives herself up to her ravisher, she is in no different condition from a woman in a city. 79 There are also some people who are easily sated with intercourse with the same woman, being at once mad for women and haters of women, full of promiscuous and irregular dispositions, who immediately give themselves up to their first impulses, whatever they may be; letting the passions they ought to curb run without restraint, and like blind men, without any consideration, without any prudence, stumbling into any body or anything, upsetting, and overturning, and confusing everything in their violent impetuosity and haste, and suffering evils as great as those they inflict; 80 and concerning these men this law has been enacted. When those men who marry virgins in accordance with the law, and who have sacrificed on the occasion and celebrated their marriage feast, but who afterwards keep no natural affection for their wives but treat them with insolence, and treat freeborn citizens as if they were courtesans, if they seek a divorce and, unable to find any pretext for such a separation, resort to bringing false accusations, and, lacking any clear grounds for a charge, direct all their charges at things that cannot be proved, and come forward and accuse them, saying that though they thought they were marrying virgins, they found the first time they had intercourse that they were not. When, I say, these men make such charges, let all the elders assemble to decide on the case, and let the parents of the woman who is accused also appear, to make their defence in this danger they share. 81 For in such a case, not only are the daughters themselves in danger, as to their reputation for having preserved the chastity of their bodies, but their guardians are likewise imperilled, not only because they have not kept them safe until the important time when they reached marriageable age, but because they have given in marriage as virgins those who have been defiled by others, deceiving and imposing on those who have taken them as wives. 82 Then if they appear to have justice on their side, let the judges impose a fine of money on those who have invented these false accusations, and let them also sentence those who have assaulted them to corporeal punishment, and let them also pronounce what will be the most unpleasant thing of all to those men, a confirmation of their marriage, if their wives are still willing to live with them; for the law permits them at their own choice to remain with them or to abandon them, and will not allow the husbands any option either way, on account of the false accusations which they have brought. THE LAW CONCERNING MURDERERS 83 The name of homicide is given to the man who has killed another; but in truth it is a sacrilege, and the very greatest of all sacrileges, because, of all the possessions and sacred treasures in the whole world, there is nothing more holy in appearance, nor more godlike than man, the all-beautiful copy of an all-beautiful model, a representation admirably made after an archetypal rational idea. 84 We must therefore, without hesitation, pronounce the homicide or murderer an impious and atrociously wicked person, since he commits the greatest of all atrocities and impieties, and he ought to be put to death as having done things which can never be pardoned, since, being worthy of ten thousand deaths, he escapes with only one, because death, being an easy road, does not allow his existence to be prolonged, so as to endure a multitude of punishments; but there can be nothing wrong in his suffering the same treatment he has inflicted on others, 85 and yet how can it be the same, if it differs in its time, in its manner of infliction, in its intention and in the persons involved? Does the violence not begin first, and the repelling of it or retaliation for it come afterwards? And is murder not the most lawless of all things, but the punishment of murderers the most lawful action possible? Again, the man who has killed another has satisfied the desire he had when he killed him; but the man who has been killed, since he is now out of the way, can neither attack him in retaliation, nor can he gratify himself by taking revenge. Moreover, the one was able with his own hands to carry out the designs which he conceived by himself; but the other can never succeed in procuring his punishment, unless his relations and friends become his champions, taking compassion on him for the calamity that has happened to him. 86 Now if anyone aims a blow with a sword at anyone, with the intention of killing him, and does not kill him, he will still be guilty of murder, since he was a murderer in his intention, even though the end did not keep pace with his wish. Again, let the same punishment apply to the man who, by previous contrivance and machinations (not daring to behave bravely, and to stand face to face with his enemy and attack him openly), treacherously plots and contrives his slaughter; for such a man is equally liable to the curse denounced against murderers, and even if he is not a murderer with his hands, he is one in his soul; 87 for, in my opinion, just as we must regard as enemies not only those who fight against us by sea or by land, but also those who are prepared for either kind of warfare, and who are erecting battering rams and engines against our harbours and our walls; and just as we do in fact judge them so, even though they come to no actual conflict, so also we must count as murderers not only those who perform the mere act of killing, but those who do anything which tends to slaying, whether openly or secretly, even if they do not eventually perpetrate the action. 88 And if out of fear or out of audacity, two very contrary feelings, but both blameable, they venture to flee to the temple as if they would find asylum there, we must prevent their doing so, if we can: but if they get there before us and do get in, then we must take them out and give them up for execution, affirming the principle that the temple does not give an asylum to impious men; for everyone who commits actions of incurable guilt is an enemy to God; and murderers do commit such actions, since those who are murdered have suffered disasters which are incurable. 89 Or shall we say that to those who have done no wrong the temple is still inaccessible until they have washed themselves, and sprinkled themselves, and purified themselves with the accustomed purifications; but that those who are guilty of indelible crimes, the pollution of which no length of time will ever efface, may approach and dwell among those holy seats; though no decent person who has any regard for holy things would even receive them into his house? 90 Therefore, since they have heaped iniquity upon iniquity, adding lawlessness and impiety to murder, they must be dragged out of the temple to undergo their punishment, since, as I have said before, they have committed actions worthy of ten thousand deaths instead of one; for otherwise the temple would be closed to the relatives and friends of the man who has been so treacherously murdered, if the murderer were living in it, since they could never bear to come into the same place as him. But it would be absurd for a great number of people, and those the very people he has injured, to be excluded from the temple for the sake of one man, and the most lawless of men at that--men who, besides having done no wrong themselves, have even suffered an untimely affliction through his actions. 91 And perhaps, indeed, the lawgiver seeing far into the future by the acuteness of his reasoning powers, was by such commandments guarding against any bloodshed ever taking place in the temple through the entrance of any of the friends of the murdered man, for natural affection, a very ungovernable feeling, would urge them, full of enthusiasm and violent rage as they would be, almost to kill the murderer with their own hands, and if that were to happen it would be a most impious sacrilege; for then the blood of the sacrifices would be mingled with the blood of murderers; what has been consecrated to God with what is wholly impure. This is why Moses commands that the murderer shall be given up, even from the altar itself. 92 But some people who have killed others with swords, or spears, or darts, or clubs, or stones, or something of that kind, may possibly have done so without any previous design, and without having planned this deed in their hearts for some time beforehand, but may have been excited at the moment, yielding to passion more powerful than their reason, to commit the homicide; so that it is only half a crime, since the mind had not been occupied by the pollution for a long time beforehand. 93 But there are also others of the greatest wickedness, men polluted both in hands and mind, who are sorcerers and poisoners, who devote all their leisure and all their solitude to planning well-timed attacks on others, and who invent all kinds of contrivances and devices to bring about calamities on their neighbours. 94 For this reason Moses commands that poisoners and sorceresses shall not be allowed to live one day or even one hour, but that they shall be put to death the moment that they are taken, with no pretext allowed them for even a moment to put off or delay their punishment. For anybody may guard against those who attack one openly and to one's face; but the cunning of those who plot against one secretly, and who disguise their attacks by the concealed approaches of poison, is not easy to see beforehand. 95 It is necessary, therefore, to anticipate them, inflicting on them the death that others would otherwise have suffered at their hands. Besides this, the man who openly kills someone with a sword, or with any similar weapon, can only kill a few persons at one time; but one who mixes and compounds poisonous drugs with food, may destroy countless companies at once who do not suspect his treachery. 96 Accordingly, it has happened before now that very large parties of men who have come together in good fellowship to eat of the same salt and to sit at the same table, have suffered at such a time of harmony things wholly incompatible with it, being suddenly killed, and have thus met with death instead of feasting. For this reason it is fitting that even the most merciful, and gentle, and moderate of men should approve the execution of such persons, who are all but the same as murderers who kill with their own hand; and that they should think it consistent with holiness not to commit their punishment to others, but to execute it themselves. 97 For how can it be anything but a most terrible evil for anyone to contrive the death of another by the very food that is given as the cause of life, and to change what is nourishing by nature so as to make it destructive; so that those who, in obedience to the necessities of nature, have recourse to eating and drinking, having no previous idea of any treachery, take destructive food as though it were wholesome? 98 Again, let the same punishment fall on those who, though they do not compound drugs that are actually deadly, nevertheless administer drugs that cause long diseases; for death is often a lesser evil than diseases; and especially than those that extend over a long time and have no fortunate or favourable end. For the illnesses which arise from poisons are difficult to cure, and are often completely incurable. 99 Moreover, in the case of men who have been exposed to machinations of this kind, it often happens that diseases of the mind ensue which are worse even than the afflictions of the body; for they are often attacked by delirium and insanity, and intolerable frenzy, through which the mind, the greatest blessing which God has bestowed upon mankind, is impaired in every possible way, despairing of any safety or cure, and so is utterly removed from its seat, and expelled, as it were, leaving in the body only the inferior portion of the soul, namely, its irrational part, which even beasts share, since every person who is deprived of reason, which is the better part of the soul, is changed into the nature of a beast, even though the characteristics of the human form remain. 100 The true magical art, a science of discernment, which contemplates and beholds the books of nature with a more acute and distinct perception than usual, and so regarded as a dignified and desirable branch of knowledge, is studied not merely by private individuals, but even by kings, and the very greatest of kings, and especially by the Persian monarchs, so much so that they say that among that people no one can possibly succeed to the kingdom unless he has first been initiated into the mysteries of the magi. 101 But there is a certain adulterated form of this science, which may more properly be called wicked imposture, pursued by quacks, cheats and buffoons, and by the vilest of women and slaves, professing to understand all kinds of incantations and purifications, and promising to change the dispositions of those on whom they operate so as to turn those who love to unalterable enmity, and those who hate to the most excessive affection by certain charms and incantations; and thus they deceive and gain influence over men of unsuspicious and innocent dispositions, until they fall into the greatest calamities, through which the bonds uniting great numbers of friends and relatives have gradually decayed and then been rapidly destroyed without a sound. 102 And I imagine that the lawgiver, having regard to all these circumstances, would for that reason not permit the punishments due to poisoners to be postponed to any later occasion, but ordained that the executioners should at once proceed to inflict the due penalty on them; for delay rather excites the guilty to make use of the time that is allowed them to carry out their iniquities, since they are already condemned to death, while it fills those who are already suspicious and apprehensive of misfortune with a more urgent fear, as they regard the life of their enemies as their own death. 103 Therefore, just as when we merely see snakes, and serpents, and any other venomous animals, we at once, without a moment's delay, kill them before they can bite, or wound, or attack us at all, taking care not to expose ourselves to any injury from them because we know the mischief inherent in them; in the same way it is right to punish promptly those men who, though they have had a gentle nature assigned to them by means of that fountain of reason which is the cause and source of all society, nevertheless deliberately change it themselves to the ferocity of untameable beasts, regarding injury to as many people as they can reach as their greatest pleasure and advantage. 104 This is enough to say for now about poisoners and magicians. Moreover, we should also be aware that very often unexpected occasions arise in which a person kills a man without ever having prepared himself for this action, but because he has been suddenly transported with anger, which is an intolerable and terrible feeling, and which injures beyond all other feelings both the man who feels it and the man who has provoked it; 105 for sometimes a man who has come into the market-place on some important business meets someone who is inclined to accuse him rashly, or who attempts to assault him, or who begins to pick a quarrel with him and engages him in a conflict, and, to get away from him and escape him more quickly, either strikes his opponent with his fist or takes up a stone and throws it at him and knocks him down. 106 And if the wound which the man has received is mortal, so that he at once dies, then let the man who has struck him also die, suffering himself the same fate he inflicted on the other. But if the man does not die immediately after receiving the blow, but is afflicted by illness in consequence and takes to his bed, and after proper care gets up again, even though he may not be able to walk well without support, but may require someone to support him or a stick to lean upon, in that case the man who struck him shall pay a double penalty, one as an atonement for the injury done, and one for the expenses of the cure. 107 And when he has paid this he shall be acquitted of the death penalty, even if the man who has received the blow should subsequently die; for perhaps he did not die of the blow, since he got better after that and recovered enough to walk, but perhaps he died from some other causes, such as often suddenly attack and kill those in the most vigorous bodily health. 108 But if anyone fights with a pregnant woman, and strikes her a blow on her belly, and she miscarries, if the child conceived within her is still unfashioned and unformed, he shall be punished by a fine, both for the assault which he committed and also because he has prevented nature, who was fashioning and preparing that most excellent of all creatures, a human being, from bringing him into existence. But if the child conceived had taken on a distinct shape in all its parts, having received all its proper connective and distinctive qualities, he shall die; 109 for such a creature is a man, whom he has killed while still in the workshop of nature, who had not yet thought it the proper time to bring him into the light, but had kept him like a statue lying in a sculptor's workshop, requiring nothing more than to be released and sent out into the world. 110 Because of this commandment he also adds another, more important proposition, in which the exposure of infants is forbidden, which has become a very common piece of wickedness among other nations because of their natural inhumanity; 111 for if it is proper to provide for what has not yet been brought forth, because of the definite periods of time such a process requires, so that even it may not suffer any injury from being plotted against, how can it not be even more necessary to take similar care of the child once it has been brought to perfection and born, and sent forth, as it were, into that colony which has been assigned to the human race, for the purpose of having a share of the bounties of nature which she sends forth from the land, and from the water, and from the air, and from the heaven? bestowing on men the sight of the heavenly bodies, and the power and supreme authority over all the things on earth, and supplying all the external senses with abundant supplies of all things, and presenting to the mind as the great king, by means of those outward senses as its body-guards, all the things which are visible to them, and, without employing their agency, all those things which are appreciable only by reason. 112 Accordingly, let those parents who deprive their children of all these blessings, giving them no share of any one of them from the moment of their birth, know that they are violating the laws of nature, and accusing themselves of the very greatest enormities, of a devotion to pleasure, and a hatred of their species, and murder, and the very worst kind of murder, infanticide; 113 for those men are devoted to pleasure who, when they have relations with women, are not moved by the wish to produce children and perpetuate their race, but are like boars or he-goats seeking only the enjoyment that such relations bring. Again, who could hate their own kind more than those who are the implacable and ferocious enemies of their own children? Unless, of course, anyone is so foolish as to imagine that men who act barbarously toward those bound to them by ties of blood can be humane to strangers. 114 And their murders and infanticides are proved beyond all denial, since some of them kill their children with their own hands, stifling their first breath and smothering it altogether, out of a terribly cruel and unfeeling disposition; others tie a weight to them and throw them into the depths of a river or the sea, so that the weight makes them sink to the bottom more quickly. 115 Others carry them out to a deserted place and expose them there, in the hope, so they say, that someone may save them, but in truth to load them with still more painful suffering; for there, with no one to keep them off, all the beasts that devour human flesh attack them and feast on the delicate banquet of the children, while their only guardians, the people bound above all others to protect and save them, their own father and mother, have exposed them. And carnivorous birds fly down and lick up what is left of their bodies, when they have not found them first; when they do find them first, they do battle with the beasts of the earth for the whole carcass. 116 And suppose that someone passing along the road is moved by gentle compassion to take pity on the exposed infants and show them mercy, picking them up, feeding them and giving them the rest of the care they need: what do we think of such a humane act? Do we not regard it as an outright condemnation of the real parents, when people in no way related to the children show the tender foresight of parents, while the parents do not show even the kindness of strangers? 117 So Moses has tacitly but utterly prohibited the exposure of children, when he condemns to death, as I said before, anyone who causes a miscarriage in a woman whose unborn child is already formed. And yet those who have investigated the secrets of natural philosophy say that children still within the belly, while they are contained in the womb, are part of their mothers. The most highly esteemed physicians, who have studied the formation of man by anatomy, scrutinising both what is easily seen and what is carefully hidden, so that if any case should need their attention nothing may be overlooked through ignorance and so cause serious harm, agree with them and say the same thing. 118 But when the children are born, separated from what is produced with them, and set free on their own, they become real living creatures, lacking nothing that can contribute to the perfection of human nature, so that beyond all question anyone who kills an infant is guilty of homicide, and the law shows its indignation at such an act. The law is guided not by the age but by the species of the creature against whom its ordinances are violated. 119 If it did seem reasonable to take age into account at all, I think one might very reasonably be even more indignant at those who kill infants. For when grown adults are killed, there may be ten thousand plausible excuses for attacks on them or quarrels with them; but against mere infants, only just launched into human life and shown the light of day, not even the greatest liar can invent an accusation, since they are wholly innocent of offence. So those who plot the destruction of these infants ought to be regarded as the most inhuman and pitiless of all men, and the sacred law justly detests such criminals and pronounces them worthy of death. 120 The sacred law says that a man killed by someone who never intended to kill him has been given up by God into the hands of his killers; in this way it means to excuse the man who appears to have killed him, as if he had killed a guilty person. 121 For the merciful and forgiving God can never be supposed to have given up any innocent person to be put to death; but whoever cleverly escapes the judgment of a human tribunal through his own cunning and wariness is convicted when brought before the invisible tribunal of nature, which alone discerns the uncorrupted truth and is never kept in the dark by the tricks of sophistical argument. For such an investigation admits no arguments at all; it lays bare every device and intention and brings the most secret plans to light; and in one sense it does not hold a man who has killed another liable to justice, since he has sinned only in serving as the minister of a divine judgment; still, he will have incurred a faint and slight kind of defilement, which may, however, be excused and pardoned. 122 For God uses those who commit slight and remediable errors as ministers of punishment against those who have committed enormous and unpardonable crimes; not that he approves of them, but he makes use of them as suitable instruments of punishment, so that no one who is himself pure in his whole life and descended from virtuous parents may have homicide imputed to him, even if he is the greatest man in the world. 123 So the law has sentenced anyone who has killed a man to banishment, yet not banishment to just anywhere, nor forever; for it has assigned six cities, a quarter of what the whole sacred tribe received as its inheritance, to those convicted of homicide, and from the circumstances connected with them it has named them cities of refuge. And it set the length of this banishment at the lifetime of the high priest, permitting the exiles to return home after his death. 124 The reason for the first of these injunctions was this. The tribe just mentioned received these cities as a reward for a justified and holy slaughter, which we must regard as the most illustrious and important of all the gallant deeds ever performed. 125 For when the prophet, called up to the loftiest and most sacred of all the mountains in that district, was divinely instructed in the generic outlines of all the special laws, and was out of his people's sight for many days, those of the people who were not peaceable by nature filled every place with the evils which arise from anarchy, and crowned all their iniquity with open impiety, ridiculing all the excellent and beautiful lessons concerning the honour due to the one true and living God, making a golden bull, an imitation of the Egyptian Typhos, bringing it unholy sacrifices and unhallowed festivals, and instituting profane and impious dances, with songs and hymns instead of lamentations; 126 then the tribe just mentioned, intensely indignant at the people's sudden departure from their former customs, and inflamed with zeal by their natural hatred of iniquity, all became full of rage and divine enthusiasm, and, arming themselves as if at one signal, fell upon the people with great contempt in one unanimous attack, while they were drunk with a twofold intoxication of impiety and wine, beginning with their nearest and dearest friends and relations, since they considered those who loved God their only relations and friends. And in a very small part of the day, twenty-four thousand men were killed, and their calamity was a warning to those who would otherwise have joined in their iniquity, but who were now afraid of suffering a similar fate. 127 Since these men had undertaken this expedition of their own accord and spontaneously, in the cause of piety and holy reverence for the one true and living God, and at great danger to those who had entered the contest, the Father of the universe received them with approval, and at once declared those who had killed those men pure from all curse and pollution, and in return for their courage he bestowed the priesthood on them. 128 So the lawgiver commands that a man who has killed unintentionally should flee to one of the cities which this tribe has received as its inheritance, to reassure him and teach him not to despair of safety, and to make him, while kept safe by the privilege of the place, remember and consider that on certain occasions those who have deliberately killed someone are not only forgiven but are even given great and preeminent honours and abundant happiness. And if such honours can ever be granted to those who have killed a man voluntarily, how much more must allowance be made for those who did so with no intent, so that, even if they receive no honour, they may at least not be condemned to death in retaliation. By these injunctions the lawgiver indicates that not every kind of homicide is blameworthy, but only the kind combined with injustice; that some other kinds, committed out of desire and zeal for virtue, are even praiseworthy; and that unintentional homicide is not greatly to be blamed. 129 That is enough to say about the first cause; now we must explain the second. The law sees fit to preserve a man who has killed another without intending to, knowing that he was not guilty in his intention, but that with his hands he has served the justice that presides over all human affairs. For the dead man's nearest relations lie in wait for him with hostile intent, seeking his death, while others, out of excessive compassion and inconsolable grief for the dead, are eager to avenge them, and in their unreasoning impetuosity disregard both the truth and the justice of nature. 130 So the law directs a man who has committed homicide in these circumstances not to flee to the temple, since he is not yet purified, nor to some neglected and obscure place, for fear that, being despised, he would be handed over to his enemies without resistance; but to flee to the sacred city, which lies on the border between holy and profane ground and is in a way a second temple; for the cities of those consecrated to the priesthood deserve more respect than the others, in the same proportion, I think, as their inhabitants are more venerable than the inhabitants of other cities; for the lawgiver's intention is to give the fugitives more complete security through the privilege belonging to the city that has received them. 131 Moreover, as I said before, he has appointed the death of the high priest as the time for their return, for the following reason. Just as the relations of each person who has been treacherously killed lie in wait to secure revenge and justice against those who treacherously killed him, so the high priest is the relation and nearest kin of the whole nation; since he presides over all who bring disputes and dispenses justice to them according to the laws, and offers up prayers and sacrifices every day on behalf of the whole nation, and prays for blessings for the people as for his own brothers, and parents, and children, so that every age and every part of the nation, as if it were one body, may be united into one and the same society and union, devoted to peace and obedience to the law. 132 So let everyone who has killed a man unintentionally fear him, as the champion and defender of the cause of the slain, and keep himself close within the city to which he has fled for refuge, no longer venturing outside the walls, if he cares at all for his own safety and for keeping his life out of the reach of danger. 133 So when the law says, do not let the fugitive return until the high priest is dead, it is saying in effect: Until the high priest is dead, who is the common relation of all the people, and who alone is entrusted with deciding the affairs of the living and the dead. 134 This, then, is the reason fit to be spoken into the ears of the younger men. But there is another that may well be set before those who are older and settled in character, and it is this. Private individuals are required only to be pure from voluntary offences, or, if anyone chooses, he may add the other priests to this list as well; but purity from both kinds, that is, from both voluntary and involuntary offences, can be given only to the high priest, as a special honour; 135 for it is altogether unlawful for him to touch any pollution whatever, whether intentionally or out of some unforeseen perversion of soul, so that he, as the declarer of the will of God, may be adorned in both respects, with a disposition free from reproach and a prosperous life, a man to whom no disgrace ever attaches. 136 It suits the character of such a man to look with suspicion on those who have killed a man even unintentionally, not regarding them as under a curse, but not as pure and wholly free from offence either, even though they may seem to have obeyed the intention of nature completely, who used them as her instruments to avenge herself on those they killed, whom she had privately judged on her own and condemned to death. That is enough to say about free men and citizens. The lawgiver then proceeds, in due order, to lay down laws about slaves who are killed by violence. 137 Servants are, indeed, in an inferior condition of life, but they share the same nature as their masters. And under the divine law the rule of justice is not the condition of fortune but the harmony of nature. So masters ought not to use their power over their slaves insolently, displaying by such conduct their insolence, their overbearing disposition and their terrible cruelty; for such conduct is proof not of a peaceful soul, but of one that, unable to govern itself, covets the unaccountable power of a tyrant. 138 For the man who fortifies his own house like a citadel, and does not allow a single person within it to speak freely, but behaves savagely to everyone because of his innate misanthropy and barbarity, which practice has perhaps even increased, is a tyrant in miniature; and his present conduct plainly shows that he will not stop even there if he gains greater power. 139 For then, having first enslaved his own native land, he will at once go out to attack other cities and countries and nations, proving that he is not inclined to show mercy to anyone who ever becomes subject to him. 140 So let such a man be well assured that he will not always escape punishment for his continual ill-treatment of many people; for justice, who hates iniquity and is the helper and champion of those who are treated unjustly, will be his enemy, and she will demand from him a strict account and reckoning for those who have fallen into calamity through him, 141 even if he says that he only beat them to correct them, not meaning to kill them. For he will not get off at once with a cheerful face; he will be brought before the tribunal and examined by careful investigators of the truth, who will inquire whether he killed him intentionally or unintentionally. And if he is found to have plotted against him with wicked intent, let him die, and let no excuse be made to secure his release on the ground that he is the servant's master. 142 But if the beaten servants do not die immediately after the blows, but live a day or two, then the master shall no longer be liable to a charge of murder, for he has this strong defence: that he did not kill them on the spot by beating them, nor afterwards while he had them in his house, but let them live as long as they could, even if that was not very long. Besides, no one is so foolish as to try to harm another by conduct that will make him a loser too. 143 But anyone who kills his servant injures himself much more, since he deprives himself of the services he received from the servant while he was alive, and loses besides the price he paid for him, which was perhaps a large one. If, however, the servant turns out to have done something worthy of death, let the master bring him before the judges and prove his offence, making the laws, not himself, the arbiters of his punishment. CONCERNING THOSE BRUTE BEASTS WHICH ARE THE CAUSES OF A MAN's DEATH 144 If a bull gores a man and kills him, let him be stoned. For his flesh may neither be offered in sacrifice by the priests nor eaten by men. Why not? Because the law of God does not allow a man to take as food, or as seasoning for his food, the flesh of an animal that has killed a man. 145 But if the owner of the beast knew that it was a savage and ferocious animal and did not confine it, shut it up or look after it, or if he had heard from others that it was not tame and still let it graze freely, he shall be liable to prosecution as guilty of the man's death. And then the animal that gored the man shall die, and its master shall be put to death too, or else pay a ransom as the price of his safety, and the court of justice shall decide what punishment he ought to suffer or what penalty he ought to pay. 146 And if a slave has been killed, the owner shall pay the slave's full value to his master; but if the bull has gored not a man but another animal, then the owner of the beast that killed it shall take the dead animal and give its master another like it in its place, because he knew beforehand how fierce his own beast was and did not guard against it. And if the bull has killed a sheep belonging to someone else, he shall again give the man one like it in its place, and be thankful to him for not demanding a greater penalty, since he was the first to do any injury. CONCERNING PITS 147 Some people commonly dig very deep pits, either to open springs that may bubble up or to collect rain water, and then they widen drains underground; in that case they ought either to build a wall around their mouths or to put a cover on them; yet out of shameful carelessness or folly they often leave such places open, and some people have met their death that way. 148 So if a traveller passing along the road, not knowing beforehand that there is any such pit, steps on the hole, falls in and is killed, any relation of the dead man who chooses may bring an accusation against those who made the pit, and the tribunal shall decide what punishment they ought to suffer, or what penalty they ought to pay. But if a beast falls in and perishes, those who dug the pit shall pay its owner its value as if it were still alive, and they shall keep the dead body for themselves. 149 Again, those who build houses and leave the roof level with the ground, when they ought to protect it with a parapet so that no one falls unawares into the hole made, are also committing an injury akin to and like the one just mentioned. For such men, to tell the plain truth, are committing murder as far as it depends on them, even if no one falls in and perishes; so let them be punished equally with those who leave the mouths of pits open. 150 The law expressly forbids taking any ransom from murderers who ought to be put to death, to lessen their punishment or to substitute banishment for death. For blood must be atoned for by blood: the blood of the one treacherously killed by the blood of the one who killed him. 151 Men of wicked dispositions never tire of offending, but in the excess of their wickedness are always committing atrocious acts, increasing their iniquities and extending them beyond all bounds or limits. The lawgiver would, if it had been in his power, have condemned those men to ten thousand deaths. But since this was not possible, he prescribed another punishment for them, commanding those who had killed a man to be hanged on a tree. 152 And after establishing this ordinance he returned to his natural humanity, treating mercifully even those who had behaved unmercifully towards others, and he declared, "Do not let the sun set upon persons hanging on a tree;" but let them be buried under the earth and be concealed from sight before sunset. For it was necessary to raise up high all those who were enemies of every part of the world, to show as plainly as possible to the sun, and to the heaven, and to the air, and to the water, and to the earth, that they had been punished; and after that it was proper to remove them to the region of the dead and bury them, so that they would not pollute the things on the earth. 153 Moreover, there is this further and very fitting commandment: fathers are not to die for their sons, nor sons for their parents, but everyone who has done things worthy of death is to be put to death on his own. This commandment is laid down because of those who set might above right, and also for the sake of those who are too affectionate; 154 for these last, out of extraordinary and extravagant good will, are often cheerfully willing to die for others, the innocent giving themselves up for the guilty and thinking it a great gain not to see them punished; or else sons giving themselves up for their fathers, thinking that, if deprived of them, they would live a miserable life from then on, more grievous than any kind of death. 155 But to such persons one must say, "This good-will of yours is untimely." And everything untimely is very properly blamed, just as what is done at the right time is praised for that reason. Moreover, it is right to love those whose actions deserve love. But no wicked man can really be a friend to anyone. And when men violate all the principles of justice, wickedness alienates relations, even the most devoted of them. For agreement on the principles of justice and on the other virtues is a closer tie than relationship by blood; and if anyone violates such an agreement, he is counted not only as a stranger and a foreigner, but even as an irreconcilable enemy. 156 "Why then do you pervert and misapply the name of good-will, a most excellent and humane name, and conceal the truth behind the veil of an effeminate and womanly disposition? For are not people womanly when reason in their minds is overcome by compassion? And you do this to commit a double iniquity, freeing the guilty from punishment and thinking it fair to punish yourselves in their place, though you are in no way to blame." 157 But these men say in their own defence that they are not pursuing any private advantage for themselves, and that they are moved by excessive affection for their nearest relations, whom they will cheerfully die to save. 158 But who, not just among moderate men but even among those very inhuman in disposition, would not reject such barbarous and truly brutal people as those who, either by secret contrivance or by open audacity, inflict the greatest calamities on one person as a punishment for the faults of another, putting forward as a pretext the plea of friendship, or of relationship, or of fellowship, or something of that kind, as a justification for the destruction of those who have done no wrong? And sometimes they even do these things, without having suffered any injury at all, out of mere covetousness and love of plunder. 159 Not long ago a man who had been appointed tax collector in our country, when some of those who seemed to owe such tribute fled out of poverty, fearing intolerable punishment if they stayed without paying, carried off their wives, and their children, and their parents, and their whole families by force, beating and insulting them, and heaping every kind of insult and ill treatment upon them, to make them either reveal where the fugitives were hiding or pay the money in their place, though they could do neither the one thing nor the other; in the first place, because they did not know where they were, and secondly, because they were in still greater poverty than the men who had fled. 160 But this tax-collector did not let them go until he had tortured their bodies with racks and wheels, so as to kill them with newly invented kinds of death, fastening a basket full of sand to their necks with cords, and suspending it there as a very heavy weight, and then setting them in the open air in the middle of the market place, so that some of them, tortured and overwhelmed by all these afflictions at once, the wind, and the sun, and the mockery of the passers by, and the shame, and the heavy burden attached to them, might faint miserably; and that the rest, as spectators, might be grieved and take warning from their punishment, 161 some of whom, feeling such miseries more acutely in their minds than through their eyes, since they sympathised with these unfortunates as if they were themselves suffering in the persons of others, put an end to their own lives by swords, or poison, or halters, thinking it a great piece of good luck for people exposed to such misery to be able to die without torture. 162 But those who did not hurry to kill themselves, and were seized before they could, were led away in a row, as in lawsuits over inheritance, in order of nearness of kin, the nearest relations first, then those next to them in succession, in the second or third place, till they came to the last; and then, when there were no relations left, the cruelty moved on to the friends and neighbours of the fugitives; and sometimes it was extended even into the cities and villages, which soon became desolate, being emptied of all their inhabitants, who all left their homes and scattered to places where they hoped to escape detection. 163 But perhaps it is not surprising if men who are barbarians by nature, utterly ignorant of all gentleness, and under the command of despotic authority, which compelled them to give an account of the yearly revenue, should, to enforce payment of the taxes, extend their harshness not merely to property but also to the persons, and even to the lives, of those from whom they thought they could exact a vicarious payment. 164 But now even those who are the very standard and rule of justice, the lawgivers themselves, looking to appearance rather than truth, have allowed themselves to become standards of injustice instead, commanding the children of a traitor to be put to death with the traitor himself, and, in the case of tyrants, the five families most closely related to them. 165 Why is this, I would ask? For if indeed they have shared in their wickedness, then let them likewise share in their punishment; but if they have not participated in that, and if they have not been imitators of such actions, and if they have not been so elated by their kinsmen's prosperity as to exult in it, why should they be put to death? Is it for this reason alone, that they are their relations? Are punishments inflicted, then, for the relationship, or for the lawless conduct? 166 Perhaps you yourselves, you venerable lawgivers, have had virtuous relations; but suppose they had been wicked: then, it seems to me, not only would you never have devised any such commandment yourselves, but you would have been furious with anyone else who proposed such a law, because you would take care that someone living in security should not suffer ruin alongside those in danger or be exposed to the same misfortune. For the one condition is subject to fear, so that a person who guards against it for himself will still not despise the safety of another; but the other state is free from all apprehension, and it has often persuaded men to neglect the safety of innocent men. 167 So our lawgiver, considering these things and seeing the errors of others, rejects and hates them as destructive of the most excellent constitution, and consigns to punishment all who give way to such errors, whether out of indifference or out of inhumanity and wickedness, and never allows any of their countrymen or friends to be substituted for them, adding themselves to the crimes the others have already committed; 168 for this reason he has expressly forbidden sons to be put to death instead of their parents, or parents instead of their sons, thinking it right that they who have committed the crimes should also bear the punishment, whether it is a fine, or lashes and more severe bodily punishment, or even wounds and mutilation, and dishonour, and exile, or any other judicial sentence; for though he names only one kind of punishment, forbidding one person to be put to death for another, he also includes other kinds that he does not expressly mention. ABOUT WOMEN NOT BEHAVING IMMODESTLY 169 Market places, and council chambers, and courts of justice, and large companies and assemblies of numerous crowds, and a life in the open air full of arguments and actions relating to war and peace, are suited to men; but taking care of the house and remaining at home are the proper duties of women; the virgins keeping to their rooms in the centre of the house within the innermost doors, and the grown women going no further than the vestibule and outer courts; 170 for there are two kinds of states, the greater and the smaller. The larger are properly called cities, and the smaller are called houses. And the oversight and management of these are divided between the two sexes: the men govern the greater, and their government is called a polity; the women govern the smaller, which is called oeconomy. 171 Therefore no woman should concern herself with things beyond the province of household management, but she should cultivate solitude and not be seen going about like a woman who walks the streets in the sight of other men, except when it is necessary for her to go to the temple, if she has any proper regard for herself; and even then she should not go at noon when the market is full, but after most of the people have gone home; like a well-born woman, a real and true citizen, performing her vows and her sacrifices in tranquillity, so as to avert evils and to receive blessings. 172 But when men are abusing one another or fighting, it is a blameworthy act, and one of no slight shamelessness, for women to venture to run out on the pretext of helping or defending them, since even, in the times of war and of military expeditions, and of dangers to their whole native land, the law does not want them enrolled as its defenders; it looks to what is fitting, which it thinks should be preserved unchanged at all times and in all places, considering this in itself better than victory, or than freedom, or than any kind of success and prosperity. 173 Moreover, if any woman, hearing that her husband is being assaulted, carried away by affection and love for her husband, should yield to the feelings which overpower her and rush forth to aid him, she still should not be so audacious as to behave like a man, outrunning the nature of a woman; but even while aiding him she should remain a woman. For it would be a very terrible thing if a woman, wanting to rescue her husband from an insult, were to expose herself to insult by showing human life to be full of shamelessness and open to great reproach because of her incurable boldness; 174 for should a woman utter abuse in the marketplace and give vent to unlawful language? and if another man uses foul language, will she not stop her ears and run away? But as things are now, some women have reached such a pitch of shamelessness that, though they are women, they not only give vent to intemperate language and abuse among a crowd of men, but even strike men and insult them, with hands practised in weaving and spinning rather than in blows and assaults, like competitors in the pancratium or wrestlers. Other things may be tolerable, and such as anyone might easily bear, but it is shocking for a woman to go so far in boldness as to seize hold of the genitals of one of the men quarrelling. 175 For such a woman must not be let off on the ground that she seems to have done this to help her own husband; she should be brought to trial and suffer the punishment due to her excessive audacity, so that if she is ever inclined to commit the same offence again she will have no opportunity to do so; and other women, also, who might be inclined to rashness, may be taught by fear to be moderate and to restrain themselves. And let the punishment be the cutting off of the hand which has touched what it ought not to have touched. 176 And it is fitting to praise those who have been the judges and managers of the gymnastic games, who have kept women away from the spectacle, so that they would not be thrown among naked men and so mar the approved coinage of their modesty, neglecting the ordinances nature has appointed for each section of our race; for it is not right either for men to mix with women when they have taken off their clothes, but each of the sexes ought to avoid the sight of the other when they are naked, in accordance with the promptings of nature. 177 Well then, if we are to keep our eyes from these things, are the hands not much more to be blamed for touching them? For the eyes, though wholly free, are nevertheless often forced to see things which they do not wish to see; but the hands are among the parts completely under our control, and obey our commands, and are subservient to us. 178 This is the reason many people often give. But I have also heard another, put forward by people of high character, who regard most of the injunctions in the law as plain symbols of obscure meanings, and expressed hints of what may not be expressed. This other reason is as follows. There are two kinds of soul, just as there are two sexes among human beings; the one a masculine soul, belonging to men; the other a female soul, as found in women. The masculine soul is the one that devotes itself to God alone, as the Father and Creator of the universe and the cause of all things that exist; but the female soul is the one that depends on all created things, which as such are liable to destruction, and that puts forth, as it were, the hand of its power so that it may blindly lay hold of whatever comes its way, clinging to generation, which undergoes countless changes and variations, when it ought rather to cling to the unchangeable, blessed, and three times happy divine nature. 179 It is natural, therefore, that the law commands the executioner to cut off the woman's hand that has laid hold of what it should not, speaking figuratively, and implying not that the body should be mutilated by being deprived of its most important part, but rather that it is proper to root out all the ungodly reasonings of the soul that use created things as a stepping-stone; for the things which the woman is forbidden to take hold of are the symbols of procreation and generation. 180 Moreover, keeping consistently to nature, I will also say this, that the unit is the image of the first cause, and the number two is the image of divisible matter, which is acted upon. Whoever, therefore, accepts the number two and honours it above the unit must be taught that in doing so he approves of matter more than of God. For this reason the law has seen fit to cut off this apprehension of the soul as if it were a hand; for there can be no greater impiety than to ascribe the power of the agent to what is passive. 181 Here anyone may rightly blame those who decree punishments for offenders that in no way correspond to the offences, imposing pecuniary penalties for assaults, or stigma and infamy for wounds and mutilations, or banishment beyond the borders of the land for intentional murders, and everlasting exile or imprisonment for thefts; for irregularity and inequality are enemies of a constitution that is eager for the truth. 182 And our law, being the interpreter and teacher of equality, commands that offenders undergo a punishment like the offence they have committed: for instance, that they be punished in their property if they have injured their neighbour in his property; in their persons, if they have injured him in his body, or in his limbs, or the organs of his outward senses; and, if their evil designs have extended to his life, then the law commands that the punishment fall on the life of the wrongdoer. For to exact a different and wholly unequal punishment which has no connection with or resemblance to the offence, but is wholly at odds with it in every respect, is the conduct of those who violate the laws rather than of those who would establish them. 183 When we say this, we mean provided no circumstances arise that put the matter in a different light; for it is not the same thing to inflict blows on one's father and on a stranger, nor to speak ill of a ruler and of a private person, nor to do anything which is forbidden on common ground or in holy places, or at the time of a festival, or of a solemn assembly, or of a public sacrifice; or, again, on the days on which there is no holiday or sacred observance, or on those which are completely common and profane. All other matters of this kind must be examined in order to judge whether it is proper to increase or reduce the punishment. 184 Again. "If," says the law, "anyone strikes out the eye of a servant or of a handmaiden, he shall let them depart free." For just as nature has assigned the chief position in the body to the head, giving it the position best suited to that pre-eminence, as one might give a citadel to a king (for having sent it forth to govern the body it has established it on a height, placing the whole frame of the body from the neck to the feet beneath it, as a pedestal is placed under a statue), so also it has given the preeminence among the organs of the external senses to the eyes. At any rate, it has placed them above all the others, as if they were the chiefs, wishing to honour them not only in other ways but also by this, the most evident and conspicuous of all signs. 185 It would take a long time to list all the needs the eyes supply and all the services they perform for the human race. But we may mention one, the most excellent of all. It is the heaven which has showered philosophy upon us, it is the human mind which has received and which contains it, but it is sight that has entertained it and been its host; for sight was the first faculty to see the level roads through the air. 186 And philosophy is the fountain of all blessings, of all things which are really good. Whoever draws from this fountain in order to acquire and use virtue is praiseworthy; but whoever does so to accomplish wicked purposes and condemn others is blameworthy. For the one is like a man at an entertainment, who delights both himself and all who feast with him; but the other is like someone gulping down strong wine to make himself and his neighbour drunk. 187 We must now explain in what way sight may be said to have entertained philosophy as its host. Looking up to heaven, it saw the sun, and the moon, and the planets, and the fixed stars, the most beautiful host of heaven, the ornament of the world. 188 After that it came to perceive the rising and setting of these bodies, and their harmonious motions, and the fixed seasons of their periodical revolutions, and their meetings, and eclipses, and re-appearances. Then it went on to understand the increase and decrease of the moon; of the motions of the sun along the breadth of heaven, as he comes from the south towards the north, and again recedes from the north towards the south, for the generation of the fruits of the year, so that they may all be brought to perfection, and ten thousand other wonderful things besides these. And having looked around and surveyed with great diligence the things on the earth, in the sea and in the air, it displayed everything in each of these elements to the mind. 189 But since the mind was unable by itself to comprehend all these things merely by seeing them through the faculty of sight, it did not stop at what it saw; being devoted to learning and fond of what is honourable and excellent, it marvelled at what it saw and adopted this probable opinion, that these things are not moved spontaneously and at random by any irrational impulse of their own, but that they are set in motion and guided by the will of God, whom it is proper to regard as the Father and Creator of the world. It also concluded that these things are not without bounds, but are limited by the circumference of one world, as they might be by the walls of a city, the world itself being circumscribed within the outermost sphere of the fixed stars. It further considered that the Father who created the world, by the law of nature, takes care of what he has created, exerting his providence on behalf of the whole universe and of its parts. 190 Next it also considered what the essence of the visible world was, and whether all the things in the world had the same essence, or whether different things had different essences, and also of what substances everything was made, and for what reasons it was made, and by what powers the world was held together, and whether these powers were corporeal or incorporeal. 191 For what can the investigation into these and similar subjects be called but philosophy? And what more fitting name could one give to the man who devoted himself to the investigation of these topics than philosopher? For by his examination of the nature of God, and of the world, and of all the things in it, whether plants or animals, and of those models which are perceptible only to the intellect, and again of the perfected representations of those models which are visible to the outward senses, and of the virtues and vices which exist in all created things, he shows that his disposition is truly devoted to learning, and contemplation, and philosophy; and this greatest of blessings to mortal man is bestowed upon him by the faculty of sight. 192 And this faculty seems to me to deserve this pre-eminence, since it is more closely related to the soul than any of the other outward senses, for they all have some kind of connection with the intellect; but this one holds the first and principal rank, as the closest relative does in a household. 193 Anyone may infer this from many circumstances, for who does not know that when people are delighted their eyes betray their pleasure, and sparkle, but that when they are grieved their eyes are full of depression and heaviness; and if any heavy burden of grief oppresses, and crushes, and overwhelms the mind, they weep; and if anger gains the upper hand, the eyes swell, and become bloodshot and fiery; 194 and become gentle and soft again when the anger subsides. Again, when the man is immersed in deep thought and contemplation, the eyes seem fixed as if in a way they shared his gravity; but in people of little wisdom the sight wanders, because of their empty intellect, and is restless, and in short the eyes sympathise with the affections of the soul, and tend to change along with it in innumerable alternations, on account of the closeness of their connection with it; for it seems to me that God has made nothing visible so complete a representation of something invisible as sight is of the mind. 195 If therefore anyone has ever plotted against this most excellent and most dominant of all the outward senses, namely sight, and has struck out the eye of a free man, let him suffer the same infliction himself, but not so if he has only struck out the eye of a slave; not because he is entitled to pardon, or because the injury which he has done is less, but because the man who has been injured will have a still worse master if he has been mutilated in retaliation, since he will forever bear a grudge against him for the calamity which has fallen upon him, and will revenge himself on him every day as an irreconcilable enemy by harsh commands beyond his power to perform, by which the slave will be so oppressed that he will be ready to die. 196 Therefore the law has provided that the man who has injured his slave in this way shall not be allowed to escape free, and yet has not commanded that the man who has already suffered the loss of his eye should be ill-treated still further, ordering that if anyone strikes out the eye of his servant he shall without hesitation grant him his freedom; 197 for thus he will suffer a double punishment for what he has done, losing both the value of his servant and his services, and thirdly, which is worse than either, being compelled to do good in the most important matters to his enemy, whom he very likely wished to be able to ill-treat forever. And the slave has a double consolation for the evils he has suffered: he is not only emancipated but has also escaped a cruel and inhuman master. 198 The law also commands that if anyone strikes out the tooth of a slave he shall give the slave his freedom. Why is this? Because life is a thing of great value, and because nature has made the teeth the instruments of life, since food is eaten with them. Some of the teeth are suited to eating meat and all other eatable food, and on that account are called incisors, or cutting teeth; others are called molars because they further grind and smooth what has been cut by the incisors; 199 for this reason the Creator and Father of the universe, who does not make anything without appointing it for some particular use, did not do with the teeth as he did with every other part of the body, and make them at once, at the first creation of the man, considering that, since as an infant he was meant to be fed only on milk, they would be a superfluous burden to him, and would be a severe injury to the breasts, filled as they are at that time with springs of milk, from which moist food is derived, since the child would bite them while sucking the milk. 200 So he waits for a suitable time (that is, when the child is weaned) and then makes the infant put forth the teeth he had prepared for it beforehand, because the most perfect food now supplied to it requires the organs mentioned above, now that the child rejects milk as food. 201 If therefore anyone, yielding to an insolent disposition, strikes out the tooth of his servant, that organ which is the minister and provider of those most necessary things, food and life, he shall emancipate the man he has injured, because by the harm he inflicted on him he has deprived him of the service and use of his tooth. "Is a tooth, then," someone will say, "of equal value to an eye?" 202 "Each," I would reply, "is of equal value for the purpose for which it was given, the eye with reference to the objects of sight, the teeth with reference to those which are eatable." But if anyone wanted to make a comparison, he would find that the eye is entitled to the highest respect among all the parts of the body, since it is occupied in contemplating the most glorious thing in the whole world, namely the heaven; and that the tooth is useful as the chewer of food, the most useful thing, since it contributes to life. And he who strikes out a man's eye does not hinder him from living, but a most miserable death awaits the man who has all his teeth knocked out. 203 And if anyone is thinking of injuring his servants in these parts, let him know that he is causing them an artificial famine in the midst of plenty and abundance; for what good is an abundance of food to a man if the instruments that enable him to use it are taken from him and lost through the doing of his cruel, and pitiless, and inhuman master? 204 It is for this reason that in another passage the lawgiver forbids creditors to exact from their debtors a molar tooth or a grinder as a pledge, giving as a reason that the person who does so is taking a man's life in pledge; for whoever deprives a man of the instruments of living is moving towards murder, harbouring the idea of plotting even against life. 205 The law has taken such extreme care that no one should ever cause another's death that it does not regard as pure and clean even those who have touched a body that died a natural death, until they have washed and purified themselves with sprinklings and ablutions; and even after they are perfectly clean it does not permit them to go into the temple for seven days, instructing them to perform purifying ceremonies on the third and seventh days. 206 And again, in the case of persons who have gone into the house in which anyone has died, the law commands that no one touch them until they have washed both their bodies and the clothes they wore, and, in a word, it regards all the furniture and all the vessels, and everything which is in the house, as unclean and polluted; 207 for the soul of a man is a valuable thing, and when it has left its dwelling and passed to another place, everything it leaves behind is polluted, being deprived of the divine image, since the human mind is made as a copy of the mind of God, having been created after the archetypal model, the most sublime reasoning. 208 And the law says, "Let everything that an unclean man has touched be unclean too, as polluted by sharing in what is unclean." This sacred injunction seems to have a wide application, not limited to the body alone but apparently extending also to examine the dispositions of the soul, 209 for the unjust and impious man is especially unclean, since he has no respect for either human or divine things, but who throws everything into disorder and confusion by the immoderate vehemence of his passions, and by the extravagance of his wickedness, so that everything he touches becomes faulty, its nature changed by the wickedness of the one who has taken it in hand. In the same way, on the other hand, the actions of the good are all praiseworthy, made better by the energies of those who apply themselves to them, since what is done resembles in some degree the character of the person who does it.

1 I have in my previous treatises spoken of the laws relating to adultery and murder, and to all the subordinate offences which come under those heads, with, as I believe, all the accuracy the subject allows, and now, continuing in order, I must consider the third commandment in the second table, but the eighth in all, if the two tables are taken together, namely, the commandment, "You shall not steal." 2 Whoever carries off or leads away another's property without the right to do so, if he does it openly and by sheer force, shall be set down as a common enemy, and shall be prosecuted as one who has with lawless wickedness contrived a shameless act of audacity. But if he has done it secretly, trying to escape notice like a thief, exhibiting some modesty, and making the darkness the veil of his iniquity, he should then be punished privately, as answerable only to the one individual he tried to injure; and he should restore double the value of the thing stolen, making amends by his own most righteous suffering for the unrighteous advantage he has tried to gain. 3 But if he is a poor man, and consequently unable to pay the penalty, let him be sold (for it is fitting that a man who, for the sake of most iniquitous gain, has been willing to become a slave to guilt should be deprived of his freedom), so that the one who has been wronged is not sent away without consolation, his claims seemingly disregarded because of the poverty of the man who robbed him. 4 And let no one accuse this ordinance of inhumanity; for the man who is sold is not left as a slave for ever and ever, but within seven years he is released by a common proclamation as I have shown in my treatise on the number seven. 5 And let him be content to pay the double penalty, or even to be sold, since he has committed no slight offence; sinning first because, not content with what he had, he has desired more, encouraging a feeling of covetousness, a treacherous and incurable wickedness. Secondly, because he has cast his eyes on the property of others and longed for it, and has laid plots to deprive his neighbour of his own, depriving the owner of what belongs to him. Thirdly, because through his desire to escape detection, he very often keeps to himself all the advantage that can be derived from the thing he appropriates, and diverts the accusation so as to cause it to fall upon the innocent, thus making the investigation of the truth blind. 6 Such a man seems in some degree to be his own accuser, being convicted by his own conscience of the theft of the things he has secretly stolen, since he is filled with either shame or fear: the one is proof that he considers his action disgraceful, for it is only disgraceful actions which cause shame, and the other is a sign that he thinks it deserves punishment, for punishment causes fear. CONCERNING HOUSEBREAKERS 7 If anyone, madly carried away by desire for the property of others, tries to steal it and, unable to carry it off easily, breaks into a house at night, using the darkness as a veil to conceal his wicked action, if he is caught in the act before the sun has risen, he may be killed by the master of the house where he broke in, having accomplished the lesser aim he had set himself, namely, theft, but having been hindered by someone from accomplishing the greater crime which might have followed it, namely, murder; since he came equipped with iron house-breaking tools and other weapons to defend himself from any attack. But if the sun has risen, the master of the house is no longer to kill him with his own hand; he is to be led away and brought before the magistrates and judges, to suffer whatever punishment they condemn him to. 8 For at night, while men stay in their houses and have gone to rest, whether they are rulers or private individuals, in either case there is no refuge or assistance for the offender; so the occupant of the house holds the power of punishment in his own hands, appointed magistrate and judge by the hour itself. 9 But in the daytime the courts of justice and the council chambers are open, and the city is full of persons who will help to arrest the criminal; some of whom have been formally appointed guardians of the laws; and others, without any such appointment, by their natural disposition which hates iniquity, take up the cause of those who are injured; and the thief must be brought before these men; for thus the man who seeks revenge will escape the charge of arrogance or rashness, and appear to be acting in the spirit of democracy. 10 But if, when the sun has risen and is shining upon the earth, anyone kills a robber with his own hand before bringing him to trial, he shall be held guilty, as having been guided by passion rather than by reason, and as having made the laws second to his own impulses. I would say to such a man, "My friend, do not, because a thief has injured you by night, commit a worse theft yourself in daylight, one that affects not money but the principles of justice on which the constitution of the state is founded." ABOUT THE THEFT OF A SHEEP OR AN OX 11 Other thefts are to be atoned for by paying double the value of the thing stolen; but if anyone steals an ox or a sheep, the law thinks such a man worthy of a greater punishment, giving a particular honour and precedence to those animals which are the most excellent among all tame flocks and herds, not only because of the beauty of their bodies but also because of the service they render to human life. For this reason the lawgiver has not set an equal fine for the theft of each animal, but having calculated the use of both and the purposes each serves, he has appraised their value in this way. 12 For he commands that the thief restore four sheep and five oxen in place of the one he has stolen; since a sheep gives four kinds of tribute, milk, and cheese, and its fleece, and a lamb, every year: but an ox furnishes five; three of which are the same as those of the sheep--the milk, the cheese, and the offspring; but two are its own, the ploughing of the earth, and the threshing of the corn; the first of which actions is the first step towards the sowing of the crops, and the other is the end, being for the purification of the crop after it is gathered in, so that it can more easily be used for food. CONCERNING KIDNAPPERS 13 A kidnapper also is a thief; but he is, moreover, a thief who steals the most excellent thing on earth. Now, in the case of inanimate things, and of animals of no very great use in life, he has commanded those who steal them to pay their owners twice their value, as has been said before. And again, in the case of those tame and very useful flocks and herds of sheep and oxen, he has ordered the payment to be fourfold or fivefold; 14 but man, it seems, has been assigned the most pre-eminent position among the animals, being, as it were, a near relation of God himself, and akin to him in respect of his participation in reason; which makes him immortal, although he is liable to death. For this reason everyone who has any admiration for virtue is full of extreme anger, and is utterly implacable towards kidnappers, who for the sake of most iniquitous gain dare to inflict slavery on those who are free by birth, and who share the same nature as themselves. 15 For if masters act praiseworthily when, moved by their own humanity, they free servants born in their house or bought with money from the slavery in which they are held, even though these have often done them no great service, how heavy should the charge be against those who deprive people who now possess it of that most excellent of all possessions, freedom, when it is something for which a well-born and properly raised man would think it glorious to die? 16 And before now, some men, increasing their own innate wickedness, and directing the natural treachery of their characters to a violation of all rights, have set out to bring slavery not only upon strangers and foreigners, but even upon those of the same nation as themselves; and sometimes, even upon men of the same borough and of the same tribe, disregarding the shared laws and customs in which they were brought up alongside them from earliest infancy, which nature stamps upon their souls as the firmest bond of good will for all who are not very intractable and given to cruelty; 17 who, for the sake of lawless gain, sell slaves to slave-dealers, and enslave them to anyone who comes along, transporting them to a foreign land, so that they will never again greet their native land, not even in a dream, nor taste any hope of happiness. For these kidnappers would be committing a lighter iniquity if they themselves retained the services of those whom they have enslaved, but as things stand they commit a double wrong, in selling them again, and thus making them two masters instead of one, and raising up two slaveries as enemies to their condition. 18 For they, knowing the former prosperity of those they have carried off, might perhaps repent, feeling a tardy and late compassion for those who have fallen so low, and holding a proper awe of the uncertainty of fortune, which eludes all conjecture. But those who buy people in this condition, not knowing their families, will neglect them as if they came from generations of slaves, with nothing in their souls to move them to show them the gentleness and humanity that it would be natural to keep toward slaves who were born free by nature and only later enslaved. 19 Let those who kidnap and enslave people of another nation suffer whatever punishment the court of justice sentences them to; but on those who kidnap people of their own country and their own blood and sell them as slaves, the unalterable sentence of death shall be passed. For one's own countrymen are in fact not far from blood relations, and they must come very nearly under the same definition. CONCERNING DAMAGE 20 "In the field also," as someone of the old writers has said, "lawsuits arise;" since covetousness and a desire for the possessions of others is found not only in the city but also outside the walls, since it makes its home not only in various places but also in the minds of insatiable and contentious men. 21 For this reason the cities with the best codes of laws elect two sets of superintendents, rulers and providers of public order and safety: one class to manage affairs within the walls, whom they call curators of the city, and the other outside the walls, to whom they also give a fitting name, calling them agrarian magistrates. But what need would there be of agrarian magistrates if there were not some people in the fields who live only to injure their neighbours? 22 If, therefore, any shepherd or goatherd, or oxherd, or in short anyone who keeps any kind of cattle, drives his herds to feed and graze on another man's land, sparing neither crops nor trees, he shall pay a fine equal to the value of those crops and trees. 23 And he may be well content to escape with this punishment, having met with a very merciful and exceedingly indulgent law: though he has behaved like implacable foreign enemies, who usually lay waste the land and destroy the cultivated trees of the inhabitants, it has not punished him as a common enemy with death, or exile, or, finally, the confiscation of all his property, but has only sentenced him to make good the damage done to the owner. 24 For since the lawgiver, out of the excessive gentleness and humanity he had by nature and by habit, was always looking for reasons to lighten whatever misfortunes had been suffered, he found an excuse for the shepherd in the fact that cattle are by nature thoughtless and disobedient, especially when they are after food. 25 So let the shepherd be held guilty for having driven his herd into an unsuitable place in the first place, but do not let him bear the blame for everything that followed from it. For it is natural to suppose that as soon as he saw the damage being done he tried to drive them out again, but that his beasts resisted him, revelling in the green pasture, the tender crops and the shoots they were devouring. CONCERNING NOT SETTING FIRE TO BRAMBLES INCONSIDERATELY 26 Those who devour the property of others with their flocks and herds are not the only ones who do damage; so do those who thoughtlessly and carelessly kindle a fire; for if the power of fire catches hold of any appropriate fuel, it spreads in every direction, and extends and devours all around. And once it has taken hold, it defies every means anyone tries to put it out with, feeding and growing on the very things used for that purpose, until, having consumed everything, it finally burns itself out. 27 It is right, therefore, never to leave any fire either in a house or in any stables in the fields unguarded, since we know well that a single spark has often smouldered for a long time, and at last has been fanned into a flame, and so has consumed great cities, especially when the flame has been carried onward by a favourable wind. 28 So in savage wars the first, the middle and the last force brought into play is fire, which enemies trust more than their squadrons of infantry or cavalry, their fleets, or their unlimited supplies of arms and naval stores. For anyone who shoots a fire arrow with good aim into a large squadron of ships may burn it with all its crews, or may destroy in this way vast camps with all the baggage, furniture and equipment on which the army rested its hopes of victory. 29 If, then, anyone scatters fire among a heap of brambles or thorns, and the fire kindles and burns a threshing floor full of wheat, or barley, or vetches, or sheaves of corn which have been gathered together, or any fertile plain full of pasture, then the man who scattered the fire shall pay the amount of the damage done, so that by suffering he may learn to take good care and guard against the beginnings of things, and not awaken and stir up an invincible power that might otherwise have stayed quiet. CONCERNING DEPOSITS 30 A deposit is the most sacred of all the dealings men have with one another over property, since it depends solely on the good faith of the man who has received it. For loans are proved by contracts and written records, and things used openly, apart from loans, have everyone who sees them as witnesses. 31 Deposits are different: the owner, alone, gives them secretly to the receiver, also alone, looking carefully around the place, and not even taking a slave with him to carry the thing to be deposited, however devoted the slave is to his master; for each of the two parties seems anxious to avoid discovery, the one depositing the thing so as to receive it back, and the other wishing no one to know that he has received it. But we ought by all means to regard the invisible God as an unseen third party to every hidden action, whom both parties naturally take as their witness: the receiver calls him to witness that he will return the deposit when it is asked back, and the other calls him to witness that he receives it back at the proper time. 32 So let the man who commits this great wickedness and denies his deposit know well that he has cheated the one who entrusted it to him of his hope, and that he is concealing a wicked disposition under specious language, and that he is hypocritically pretending to a bastard sort of faith while in reality faithless, showing that all his pledges are worthless and all his oaths disregarded, so that he neglects all human and all divine obligations; and that he is denying two deposits at once; firstly, the deposit of him who entrusted his property to his care; and secondly, the deposit of that most unerring and infallible witness who sees all the actions of all men, and hears all the words of all men, whether they want him to or not. 33 But if the man who has received a deposit as a sacred thing thinks he ought to keep it honestly, duly honouring truth and good faith, and yet others who are always plotting against their neighbours' property, such as pickpockets or housebreakers, break in treacherously and steal the entrusted deposit, then he shall pay as a penalty double the value of what the thieves have stolen. 34 And if they are not caught, then the man who received the deposit shall go of his own accord before the divine tribunal, and stretching out his hands to heaven shall swear by his own life that he had no hand in the theft out of any desire to take for himself what had been deposited with him, and that he did not voluntarily give it up to anyone else; and, moreover, that he is not falsely reporting a robbery that never took place. For it would be absurd to punish a man who has done no wrong, or for a man who sought refuge in the help of a friend when others were injuring him to become in turn the cause of injury to that friend. 35 And deposits consist not only of inanimate things but also of animals: and with animals the danger is twofold: first, one they share with inanimate things, that they may be stolen, and also one distinct and peculiar to themselves, that they may die. We have until now been speaking only of the first kind of deposit, but we must now also explain the law about the second. 36 If any cattle entrusted as a deposit die, the one who received the deposit shall send for the one who entrusted it to him and show him what has happened, protecting himself from any evil suspicion; but if the depositor is absent, then it is not proper to send for anyone else, whose notice the depositor may perhaps have wanted to avoid; but when the depositor returns home, his friend shall swear to him that he has not been concealing any unjust appropriation of the animals by a false statement of their death. 37 And if anyone receives something not as a deposit but as a loan for his own use, whether a vessel or an animal, then if he is robbed of it, whichever it is, or if the animal dies, while the man who lent it is living with the borrower, the borrower shall not be liable, since the owner himself can be called as a witness that there is no false pretence in the matter; but if the lender is not with him at the time, he shall pay the value. 38 Why? Because it is possible that the man who used the animal when the owner was not present may have either worn the animal out with continual labour until it died, or may have worn out the vessel, by taking no care of property belonging to another, which he ought to have looked after and put away instead of giving thieves an easy chance to steal it. 39 But since our lawgiver was sharper than all other men at seeing the consequences of actions, he goes on to enact a series of prohibitions one after another, keeping them properly connected and taking care that his later commandments are consistent with his earlier ones. In keeping with this harmonious connection in what he was to say, he tells us that he was divinely inspired by God in person, who spoke to him in this way:-- "You shall not steal. "You shall not speak falsely, and bring false accusations against your neighbour. "And you shall not swear by my name to achieve an unjust end, and you shall not profane my name." 40 These commands are given beautifully and very instructively; for the thief, convicted by his own conscience, denies it and speaks falsely, fearing the punishment that would follow his confession. And he who denies an action seeks to attach the imputation to someone else, making a false accusation appear probable; and every false accuser is at once a perjured man, caring little for piety, since he has no just proofs; so he resorts to what is called the inartificial mode of proof, proof by oaths, thinking that by calling on God he will make those who hear him believe him. But let such a person know that he is ungodly and impious, since he is defiling what is by nature undefiled, the good and holy name of God. YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS 41 This is the ninth of the ten commandments, the fourth of those on the second table, and one that can bestow ten thousand benefits on human life if it is kept, just as it may injure men in innumerable ways if it is neglected; 42 for the false accuser is to be blamed, but he who bears witness to what is false is more guilty still; for the one acts only from a desire to protect himself, but the other is wicked out of a wish to join another in iniquity. And when wicked men are compared, the one who does wrong for his own sake is less unrighteous than the one who does it for another. 43 And every judge looks with suspicion on an accuser, as likely to pay little attention to truth in order to come off safely himself, which is why the accuser needs a preface to beg the attention of the hearer while he speaks; but if the judge has no personal prejudice against a witness, he receives his evidence with a willing mind and open ears, while the witness is covering over those most excellent things, truth and good faith, with specious language. And false witnesses use seductive words as a hunter uses bait, to get what he desires and aims at. 44 For these reasons, in many places in his laws, he commands us not to approve of any wicked man or action. For approving what is not virtuous is likely to lead to giving false evidence; since everyone to whom iniquity is a disagreeable and hateful thing is a friend of truth. 45 It is no great wonder that a man has attached himself to one wicked person, who has incited him to an action resembling his own character; but not to follow a multitude to do evil, like a man swept over a precipice by the combined force of a torrent, is the sign of a noble soul and of a disposition practised in manly resolve. 46 For some among the multitude, judging wrongly, think certain things lawful and just even though they are utterly shameful; for it is good to follow nature, but this impulse of the multitude is wholly at odds with following nature. 47 So if some people, gathered in companies and large crowds, attempt to make innovations, one must not consent to them, since they are adulterating the ancient and approved coinage of the state; for one wise counsel is superior to many attempts, but ignorance combined with numbers is a great evil; 48 but some people carry wickedness to such excess that they not only accuse mortal men, but adhere and cling to their unrighteousness, so as even to raise their lies as high as heaven, and to bear their testimony against the blessed and happy nature of God. And by these men I mean soothsayers, and diviners, and augurs, and everyone else who practises what they call the study of divination, an art without any art, to tell the plain truth, a mere bare imitation of the real inspiration and prophetic gift; 49 for a prophet utters nothing at all of his own, but is only an interpreter, another Being suggesting to him all that he utters, while he is speaking under inspiration, unaware that his own reasoning powers have departed and left the citadel of his soul, while the divine spirit has entered and made its home there, and is working on the whole mechanism of his voice, making it sound out clearly all the prophecies he is delivering. 50 But all who pursue the spurious, pretended kind of prophecy are inverting the order of truth by conjectures and guesses, perverting sincerity, and easily influencing those who are of unstable dispositions, as a violent wind, when blowing in a contrary direction, tosses about and overturns vessels without ballast, preventing them from anchoring in the safe havens of truth. For such people see fit to say whatever they conjecture, not as things they have found out themselves, but as divine oracles revealed to them alone, the better to induce great and numerous crowds to believe a deceit. 51 Our lawgiver very appropriately calls such people false prophets, who adulterate the true prophecy, and overshadow what is genuine by their spurious devices; but in a very short time all their manoeuvres are detected, since nature does not choose to stay hidden forever, but, when a suitable opportunity comes, displays her own power with irresistible strength. 52 For just as in eclipses of the sun the rays that have been obscured for a brief moment shine out again a short time later, exhibiting an unclouded and far-seen brilliancy with nothing at all passing over the sun, but one unalloyed blaze beaming from him in a serene sky; so also, even though some persons may deliver predictions, practising a lying art of prophecy, and disguising themselves under the specious name of prophetic inspiration, falsely taking the name of God in vain, they will be easily convicted. For the truth will come out again and beam forth, shedding a most conspicuous light all around, so that the falsehood that overshadowed it before will disappear. 53 Moses also gave an excellent commandment when he ordained that the judge should "not receive the testimony of one witness." First, because one person may unintentionally form a false impression of a thing, or may be careless about it and so be deceived. For there are innumerable false opinions, which often arise from an innumerable variety of causes; 54 and second, because it is most unjust to trust one witness against many people, or even against just one: against many, because many deserve more belief than one, since one does not outnumber many; and against one, because equal numbers allow no preponderance; for why should the judge trust a single witness, testifying against another, rather than the defendant pleading on his own behalf? But it seems best to suspend one's opinion where there is neither deficiency nor excess to guide the judgment. ON THE OFFICE AND CHARACTER OF A JUDGE 55 The law thinks that all those who adhere to the sacred constitution, established by Moses, ought to be free from all unreasonable passions, and from all wickedness; and those who are appointed by lot or elected to judge between others ought to be so most of all; for it is absurd that those who undertake to dispense justice to others, and who ought to give a faithful copy of the works of nature, presenting an accurate representation of a model picture, should themselves be open to the charge of error; 56 for just as the power of fire, which spreads warmth to everything else it reaches, was warm in itself long before doing so, and as, conversely, the power of snow cools other things because it was first cold itself, so the judge ought to be full of pure unalloyed justice, if he is to irrigate all who come before him with justice, in order that from him, as from a sweet fountain, a wholesome spring may flow for all who thirst for a dispensation of good law. 57 And this will happen if whoever undertakes the office of judge regards himself as at once judging and being judged, and, when he takes up the pebble to cast his vote, takes up wisdom at the same time so as not to be deceived, and justice so as to dispense to each party what they deserve, and courage so as never to yield to pleas or to feelings of compassion and lessen the punishment due to convicted offenders; 58 for the man who studies these virtues may reasonably be regarded as a common benefactor, like a good pilot calming the storms of affairs so as to secure the preservation and safety of those who have committed their interests to him. 59 First, the law commands the judge not to listen to vain reports. Why is this? The law says, "My good man, let your ears be purified." And they will be purified if they are continually washed out with a stream of virtuous language, never letting in the long, false, vain and hackneyed protestations, so worthy of ridicule, of storytellers or vain babblers, or of exaggerators who make a great deal of things of no importance; 60 and this is the meaning of the command not to listen to vain reports, and also of another precept somewhat in keeping with it. For, the lawgiver says, whoever listens to those who give hearsay evidence is listening to vanity and not to sound reason, because the eyes stay with the actual events, taking hold of them, so to speak, and comprehending and seizing upon them in all their parts, the light co-operating with them, by means of which all things are illuminated and clearly proved; but the ears, as one of the philosophers of old has very truly said, are less trustworthy than the eyes, since they are not themselves present at the events but are drawn by words, the interpreters of facts, which do not always tell the truth; 61 for these reasons some of the lawgivers among the Greeks, having transcribed some of the laws from the two tables of Moses, appear to have established very wise regulations, forbidding anyone to mention in his testimony anything that he has heard, on the ground that it is right to regard what a man has seen as trustworthy, but what he has heard as not wholly certain. 62 The second commandment given to a judge is not to receive gifts; for gifts, says the law, blind the eyes that see, and pervert justice, and do not let the mind travel along the level road which leads to righteousness; 63 and taking bribes to aid unjust actions is the act of truly wicked men, and even doing so to further good ends is the conduct of people who are half wicked; for there are some judges speciously disguised, half wicked, something between just and unjust, who do take up arms for the injured as their champions against those who injure them, yet are unwilling to let them win, though they ought to win, unless they gain some advantage from the victory themselves, and so make their decision corrupt and mercenary. 64 Then, when anyone blames them, they insist that they have not perverted justice, since those who ought to have lost have lost, and those who ought to have won have won their case; this is a most unworthy and false defence; for a righteous judge ought to exhibit two things, a judgment in strict accordance with the law, and incorruptibility; but he who is a judge for bribes, even though he decides justly, without realizing it defiles a thing that is beautiful by nature. 65 Moreover, he also does wrong in two other ways: first, because he is training himself to covet money, which is the beginning of the very greatest iniquities; and second, because he is injuring the man he ought to benefit by making him pay a price for justice; 66 which is why Moses very instructively commanded that the judge shall pursue what is righteous in a righteous manner; suggesting by this figurative expression that it is possible to pursue it in an unrighteous manner, because of those men who sell just and legal decisions for money, not only in the courts of justice, but everywhere in every part of land and sea, and, I might almost say, in all the transactions of life. 67 For instance, a man who has received a deposit of small value has before now given it back when asked, more to lay a snare for the one who receives it back than with any thought of serving him, so that, using good faith in small things as bait, he may cover up the look of his faithlessness in greater things; and such conduct is nothing other than pursuing justice in an unrighteous manner; for the restitution of what did not belong to him was just, but it was done in an unrighteous manner, since it was done only as bait to attract more. 68 And the main cause of all such offences is the inclination toward falsehood and the familiar habit of it, to which, from their very birth and swaddling clothes, their nurses and mothers and the whole household, free-born or slave, accustom and familiarise them by words and actions alike, fitting it to and uniting it with their souls as if it were a necessary part of their nature, though, even if it really had been implanted in them by nature, it would have been necessary to root it out by instilling good habits in its place. 69 And what in life is as beautiful as truth, which the all-wise legislator set in the most sacred place, in that part of the dress of the chief priest, where the dominant part of the soul lies, wishing to adorn it with the most beautiful and glorious of all ornaments? And next to truth he placed, as akin to it, a power that he here calls manifestation; the two are images of the two kinds of speech in us, the secret speech and the uttered speech, for the uttered speech requires manifestation, by which the secret thoughts in all our hearts are made known to our neighbour, but the secret speech needs truth for the perfection of life and actions, by means of which the road to happiness is found out. 70 The third commandment given to a judge is to investigate the facts themselves rather than paying any regard to the parties to the suit, and to try in every imaginable way to free himself from all respect of persons, forcing himself to ignore and forget everything he knows or remembers about them; such as relations, friends, countrymen or foreigners, enemies or hereditary connections, so that neither affection nor hatred may overshadow his knowledge of justice; otherwise he must stumble like a blind man, walking without a staff and with no one to guide him whom he can firmly rely on. 71 For this reason it is fitting that a righteous judge should not even be told who the parties to the suit are, and that he should look at the undisguised, simple nature of the transactions themselves; so that he does not judge by random opinion but by real truth, and is guided by the conviction that judgment belongs to God; and that the judge is the minister and steward of his judgment; and a steward is not allowed to give away his master's property, since he has received as a pledge the most excellent of all the things which exist in human life, from the most excellent of all beings. 72 And besides what has already been said, another most admirable precept commands the judge "not to show pity upon the poor man in his judgment." Yet elsewhere the lawgiver has filled nearly the whole of the law with precepts of mercy and humanity, and has uttered great threats against arrogant and insolent men, and has proposed great rewards for those who try to make amends for the misfortunes of their neighbours, and who regard their surplus not as their own exclusive possession, but as the common property of everyone in want; 73 for one of the wise men of old said aptly and truly that men are never more like the gods than when they are bestowing benefits; and what can be a greater good than for mortal men to imitate the everlasting God? 74 So do not let the rich man collect in his house vast quantities of silver and gold, and store them up, but let him bring them out freely, so that his cheerful generosity may soften the hard condition of the poor; nor let any man be puffed up with vain glory, and raise himself and boast himself in pride and arrogance, rather, let him honour equality and grant freedom of speech to people of low rank. And let the man who enjoys vigour of body be the prop of those who are weaker, and do not let him, like the men at the gymnastic contests, strive by every means to overthrow those who are inferior in strength, but let him be willing and eager to assist with his own power those who, left to themselves, are ready to faint. 75 For all those who have drunk deep of the fountains of wisdom, having banished envy entirely out of their minds, are of their own accord, and without any prompting, ready to undertake the assistance of their neighbours, pouring the streams of their words into their souls through their ears, so as to give them a share in the same knowledge they have. And when they see young men of good dispositions springing up like flourishing and vigorous shoots of a vine, they rejoice, thinking that they have found proper inheritors for this wealth of their souls, which is the only real riches, and they take them and cultivate their souls with doctrines and good meditations, until they arrive at full strength and maturity, so as to bring forth the fruit of excellence. 76 Many ornaments like these are woven into the laws and set among them to enrich the poor, on whom it is always right to have compassion except when judgment is being given, for compassion is due to misfortunes; but he who behaves wickedly with deliberate purpose is not unfortunate but unrighteous, 77 and punishment is due to the unrighteous just as honours should be conferred on the just, so no wicked man who is in difficulties and conceals the truth ought to escape punishment through the pity his poverty arouses, since what he has done deserves not pity (how could it?) but great anger. And let the man who undertakes the duty of a judge, like a skilful money-changer, divide and distinguish between the natures of things, so that mixing the good with the spurious does not cause confusion. 78 And there are many other things which may be said with respect to false witnesses and judges; but to avoid going on too long we must now move on to the last of the ten commandments, which, like each of the others, is delivered in a concise, summary form: and this commandment is, "You shall not covet." ON COVETING 79 Every passion is open to blame and deserves it, since every immoderate and violent impulse, and every irrational and unnatural emotion of the soul is also faulty and blameworthy, for what is either of these but a long-standing passion spreading further? So if anyone does not set limits to these feelings or bridle them like restive horses, he will be afflicted by an evil difficult to remedy, and then, without realizing it, he will be carried away by them, because they cannot be restrained, as a charioteer sometimes is by his chariot, and hurried into ravines and pits that are difficult to climb out of and very hard to escape from safely. 80 But of all the passions none is so grievous as covetous desire for what one does not have, for things that seem good but are not really so, a desire that produces grievous anxieties that are hard to satisfy; for such a passion puts the reason to flight, and banishes it to a great distance, involving the soul in great difficulties, while the object which is desired flies away contemptuously, retreating not with its back but with its face turned toward one; 81 for when a person perceives this passion of covetousness after having started up rapidly, then resting for a short time, either to spread out its alluring snares or because it has learnt to hope that it will succeed in its object, he then withdraws farther, uttering reproaches against it; but the passion itself, being left behind and coming too late to succeed, struggles, bearing a Tantalus-like punishment in its miserable future; for it is said that Tantalus, whenever he wanted something to drink, could not get it, because the water retreated from his lips, and if he wished to gather any fruit, it all disappeared, the fruitful trees suddenly becoming barren; 82 for just as those implacable and inexorable mistresses of the body, thirst and hunger, very often strain it more, or at any rate no less, than unhappy people racked by torture even to death are strained, unless, once they have become violent, someone appeases them with food and drink, in the same way covetous desire, having first emptied the soul through its forgetfulness of what is present and its recollection of what is far away, fills it with impetuosity and madness, and introduces into it masters even worse than its former tyrants, but with the same names, namely, hunger and thirst, now, however, not for the things that serve the enjoyment of the belly, but for money, and glory, and authority, and beauty, and for innumerable other things that appear to be objects of desire and contention in human life. 83 And just as the disease that physicians call herpes does not stop in one part of the body, but moves about and overruns the skin, and, as its name shows, creeps about (dierpei), and becomes diffused in every direction, and, spreading widely, seizes and infects by its contact the whole combination of the body's parts from head to foot, so covetous desire in the same way spreads over the whole soul, and does not leave even the smallest portion of it free from its inroads, imitating the power of fire when supplied with abundant fuel, for fire spreads and burns until it has devoured and destroyed everything it meets. 84 Covetous desire is so great and so excessive an evil; or rather, to tell the plain truth about it, it is the source of all evils. For where else do all the thefts, and acts of plunder, and repudiation of debt, and all false accusations, and acts of insolence, and, moreover, all rapes, and adulteries, and murders, and, in short, all harms, whether private or public, or sacred or profane, come from? 85 For covetous desire may most truly be called the original passion at the bottom of all these harms, and love is one of its offspring, and the most significant, filling the whole world with indescribable evils not once but many times; evils so many that even the whole circumference of the world has not been large enough to contain them, and, carried along as if by a rushing torrent, they have fallen into the sea, and all seas in every region have been filled with hostile fleets. All the terrible evils caused by naval wars have happened because of this passion; and, coming upon all continents and all islands together, have thrown them into confusion, spreading everywhere and retracing their own steps like the warriors in the diaulos, or like the ebb and flow of the tides of the sea, returning to the point from which they originally set out. 86 And if we look at it in this way we shall see the power of this passion more clearly. Everything that covetous desire lays hold of, it changes for the worse, like poisonous serpents or deadly poisons. What do I mean by this? 87 If this passion is directed towards money, it makes thieves, and pickpockets, and clothes-stealers, and house-breakers, and taints men with the guilt of repudiating debts, of denying deposits, of bribery and sacrilege, and of all such iniquities. 88 If it is directed towards glory, it makes men insolent, overbearing, fickle, and unstable in their dispositions, depending wholly on what is said to them and on what they hear, humbled and elated at once because of the variety and inconstancy of the crowds who praise and blame them with thoughtless impetuosity, thoughtless in their enmity and in their friendship, so that they easily change from one to the other, and it fills them with all sorts of moods akin to and resembling these. 89 Again, if the desire takes the direction of wishing for authority and power, it makes men's natures seditious, unequal, and tyrannical, it makes them cruel and inhuman enemies of their native countries, implacable masters unable to restrain themselves, irreconcilable forces against all who are their equals in might, flatterers of those more powerful than themselves, so that they can attack them treacherously. If what is desired is beauty of person, it makes men seducers, rapists, adulterers, paederasts, men given to licentiousness and incontinence, it teaches them to regard the greatest evils as the most fortunate of blessings. This passion also, when it reaches the tongue, often causes innumerable evils; 90 for some persons desire either to be silent about what ought to be mentioned, or to mention what ought to be buried in silence, and avenging justice pursues them if they reveal things improperly, or, on the contrary, if they keep silent at the wrong time. 91 When it affects the parts around the belly it makes men gluttonous, insatiable, intemperate, debauched, admirers of a profligate life, delighting in drunkenness, and epicurism, slaves to strong wine, and fish, and meat, pursuers of feasts and tables, wallowing like greedy dogs; and because of all these things their lives become miserable and accursed, and they are reduced to an existence more grievous than any death. 92 For this reason those who have tasted philosophy deeply, not merely with their lips, but feasting thoroughly on its profound doctrines, investigating the nature of the soul, and comprehending its threefold character, and how it is divided into reason, and anger, and appetite, have given the chief post to reason as the principal authority, assigning it the head as its most appropriate home, where the company of the outward senses is also stationed, always present as the body-guards of the mind, their king; 93 and assigning the breast to anger as its home, partly so that the man, armed with it like a soldier with a breastplate, may be, if not utterly free from all injury, at least difficult to subdue, and partly so that anger, living near the mind, may benefit from its neighbour, which charms it by its wisdom and makes the passions gentle and manageable; and to appetite they assign the region around the navel and the part called the diaphragm. 94 For it was proper that appetite, having the smallest share in reason, should be removed as far as possible from the palace of the mind and placed almost at the very extremities, and that the most insatiable and the most intemperate of all the passions should be confined to the pastures of cattle, where they can find food and opportunities for the propagation of their species. 95 And the most holy Moses seems to me to have had regard to all these circumstances, and for that reason to have commanded men to discard this passion, detesting it as the most disgraceful thing and the cause of most disgraceful actions; and, therefore, to have prohibited it above all other feelings as an engine for the destruction of the soul; but if that engine is destroyed and the soul brought back to obedience, to the guidance of reason, the man will become entirely filled with peace and obedience to law and all sorts of perfect good things, so as to produce complete happiness. 96 But since he was fond of brevity, and accustomed to cut short matters that tended to be countless in number by a mode of teaching confined to general instances, he begins by admonishing and correcting one appetite, the one concerned with the belly, believing that the other appetites will not be as restive, but will be brought to order by learning that the most important and authoritative of them all has become obedient to the laws of moderation. 97 What, then, is the lesson he gives us about this origin of all vices? There are two things of the most comprehensive kind: food and drink. He, then, has left neither of them unrestrained, but has bridled them with special commands best suited to lead them to temperance and to humanity, and to the greatest of all virtues, piety; 98 for he commanded men to offer first fruits of grain, and wine, and oil, and cattle, and other things; and to distribute the first fruits among the sacrificers and the priests; among the sacrificers because of the gratitude due to God for the abundance and fertility of all things, and to the priests because of their sacred ministrations in the temple, for which they deserved to receive wages for their services in the sacred ceremonies. 99 And he utterly forbids anyone to taste anything, or to take any portion of anything, before separating off the first fruits, wishing by this injunction also to teach the practice of temperance, which is most useful; for whoever has learnt not to throw himself greedily on all the abundance the seasons of the year have brought, but to wait until the first fruits are consecrated, is likely to be able to restrain the restive obstinacy of the passions, making them gentle and manageable. CONCERNING ANIMALS 100 Moreover, Moses has not granted an unlimited possession and use of all other animals to those who partake in his sacred constitution, but he has forbidden with all his might all animals, whether of the land, or of the water, or that fly through the air, which are most fleshy and fat, and apt to excite treacherous pleasure, knowing well that such animals, luring as with bait the most slavish of all the outward senses, namely, taste, produce insatiability, an incurable evil to both souls and bodies, for insatiability produces indigestion, which is the origin and source of all diseases and weaknesses. 101 Of land animals, the swine is admitted by those who eat it to be the most delicious of all meats, and of all aquatic animals the most delicate are the fish which have no scales; and Moses is more skilful than any other man at training and inuring people of good natural disposition to the practice of virtue by frugality and abstinence, endeavouring to remove costly luxury from their characters, 102 at the same time not approving of unnecessary rigour, like the lawgiver of Lacedaemon, nor undue effeminacy, like the man who taught the Ionians and the Sybarites lessons of luxury and license, but keeping a middle path between the two courses, so that he has relaxed what was too strict, and tightened what was too loose, mingling the excesses which are found at each extremity with moderation, which lies between the two, so as to produce an irreproachable harmony and consistency of life, and for this reason he has laid down, not carelessly but in minute detail, what we are to use and what to avoid. 103 One might well suppose it just that beasts which feed on human flesh should receive from men the same treatment they inflict on men, but Moses has ordained that we should abstain from the enjoyment of all such things, and, with due consideration for what suits the gentle soul, he proposes a most gentle and most pleasant banquet; for though it is right that those who inflict evils should suffer similar calamities themselves, it may not be fitting for those they mistreated to retaliate, for fear that they become brutalized by anger without being aware of it, which is a savage passion; 104 and he takes such care to guard against this, that, wishing to banish as far as possible all desire for the animals mentioned above, he forbids with all his energy the eating of any carnivorous animal at all, choosing the herbivorous animals from among the domesticated kinds, since they are tame by nature, feed on the gentle food the earth supplies, and have no disposition to plot evil against anything. WHAT QUADRUPEDS ARE CLEAN 105 The animals that are clean and lawful to eat are ten in number; the heifer, the lamb, the goat, the stag, the antelope, the buffalo, the roebuck, the pygarga, the wild ox, and the chamois, for he always holds to that arithmetical subtlety which he originally devised with the greatest possible accuracy and extends to all existing things, so that he establishes no ordinance, whether important or unimportant, without taking this number and, as it were, fitting it to the ordinance as closely connected with the regulations he is ordaining. Of all the numbers counting up from one, the most perfect is ten, and as Moses says, it is the most sacred of all and a holy number, and by it he now limits the kinds of clean animals, wishing to give their use to all who share in the constitution he is establishing. 106 And he gives two tests, or criteria, for the ten animals so listed, by means of two signs, first, that they must part the hoof, secondly, that they must chew the cud; for those which do neither, or only one of these things, are unclean. Both these signs are symbols of instruction and of the most scientific learning, by which the better is separated from the worse, so that all confusion between them is prevented; 107 for just as the animal that chews the cud, while masticating its food, draws it down its throat, and then by slow degrees kneads and softens it, and after this process sends it down again into the belly, so the man who is being instructed, having taken in through his ears the doctrines and speculations of wisdom from his instructor, derives a considerable amount of learning from him, but still cannot hold it firmly and embrace it all at once until he has turned over in his mind everything he has heard by the continued exercise of his memory (and this exercise of memory is the cement which connects ideas), and then he impresses the image of it all firmly on his soul. 108 But it seems that a firm grasp of such ideas is of no advantage to him unless he can discriminate between contrary things and distinguish which it is right to choose and which to avoid, and of this the parting of the hoof is the symbol; since the course of life is twofold, the one road leading to wickedness and the other to virtue, and since we ought to renounce the one and never to forsake the other. WHAT BEASTS ARE NOT CLEAN 109 For this reason all animals with solid hoofs, and all with many toes are implicitly declared unclean; the one because, being so, they imply that the nature of good and evil is one and the same; which is just as if one were to say that the nature of a concave and a convex surface, or of a road uphill and downhill, is the same. And the other, because it shows that there are many roads, though, indeed, they have no right to be called roads at all, which lead the life of man to deceit; for it is not easy to choose the most desirable and the most excellent among a variety of paths. WHAT AQUATIC ANIMALS ARE CLEAN 110 Having laid down these definitions for land animals, he proceeds to describe what aquatic creatures are clean and lawful to be used for food; distinguishing these too by two characteristics, fins or scales. For he rejects and prohibits those that have neither one nor the other, and those that have only one of the two. And he must state the cause, which is not lacking in sense and propriety; 111 for all those creatures which lack both, or even one of the two, are sucked down by the current, not being able to resist the force of the stream; but those which have both these characteristics can stem the water, and face it head-on, and strive against it as against an adversary, and struggle with invincible good will and courage, so that if they are pushed they push in their turn; and if they are pursued they turn upon their enemy and pursue it in their turn, making themselves broad roads in a pathless region, so as to have an easy passage to and fro. 112 Both these things are symbols: the former of a soul devoted to pleasure, and the latter of one which loves perseverance and temperance. For the road to pleasure is downhill and very easy, more an engulfing chasm than a path. But the path to temperance is uphill and laborious, yet more advantageous than any other road. And the one leads men downwards, and prevents those who travel by it from retracing their steps until they have reached the very bottom, while the other leads to heaven, making immortal those who do not tire before they reach it, if they are only able to endure its rugged and difficult ascent. ABOUT REPTILES 113 Holding to the same general idea, the lawgiver asserts that those reptiles which have no feet, and which crawl onwards, dragging themselves along the ground on their bellies, or those which have four legs, or many feet, are all unclean as food. And here, again, when he mentions reptiles he figuratively indicates those who are devoted to their bellies, gorging themselves like cormorants, and who are continually offering up tribute to their miserable belly, that is, tribute of strong wine, and confections, and fish, and, in short, all the superfluous delicacies which the skill and labour of bakers and confectioners are able to devise, inventing all sorts of rare dishes, to stimulate and set on fire the insatiable and unappeasable appetites of man. And when he speaks of animals with four legs and many feet, he means the miserable slaves not of one single passion, appetite, but of all the passions, whose genera are four in number, though their subordinate species are innumerable. So the despotism of one is very grievous, but the despotism of many is most terrible and, it seems, intolerable. 114 Again, Moses calls clean those reptiles which have legs above their feet, so that they can leap from the ground; as, for instance, the different kinds of locusts, and that animal called the serpent-fighter, here again indicating figuratively the manners and habits of the rational soul. For the weight of the body, being naturally heavy, drags down with it those of little wisdom, strangling it and pressing it down by the weight of the flesh. 115 But blessed are those whose lot it has been, since they have been well and solidly instructed in the rules of sound education, to resist successfully the power of mere strength, so that, because of what they have learnt, they can spring up from the earth and all low things, to the air and the periodical revolutions of the heaven, the very sight of which deserves to be marvelled at and earnestly striven for by those who come to it of their own accord, with no indolence or indifference. CONCERNING FLYING CREATURES 116 Having therefore already gone through, in his ordinances, all the different kinds of land animals and of those that live in the water, and having distinguished them in his code of laws as accurately as it was possible, Moses begins to investigate the remaining class of animals in the air: the innumerable kinds of flying creatures, rejecting all those which prey upon one another or upon man, all carnivorous birds, in short, all animals which are venomous, and all which have any power of plotting against others. 117 But doves, and pigeons, and turtle-doves, and all the flocks of cranes, and geese, and birds of that kind, he counts among the domestic, tame and edible creatures, allowing anyone who chooses to eat them with impunity. 118 Thus, in each of the parts of the universe, earth, water, and air, he denies us the use of some kinds of each sort of animal, whether terrestrial, aquatic or aerial; and so, taking fuel from the fire, as it were, he extinguishes appetite. CONCERNING CARCASSES AND BODIES WHICH HAVE BEEN TORN BY WILD BEASTS 119 Moreover, Moses commands that no man shall partake of any dead carcass, or of any body which has been torn by wild beasts; partly because it is not fitting that man should share a feast with untameable beasts, so as to become almost a fellow reveller in their carnivorous festivals; partly because it is perhaps injurious and likely to cause disease if the juice of the dead body becomes mingled with the blood, and perhaps also because it is proper to leave untouched what death has already pre-occupied and seized beforehand, out of respect for the necessities of nature by which it has been seized. 120 Many lawgivers, among both Greeks and barbarians, praise those who are skilful at hunting, and who seldom fail in their pursuit or miss their aim, and who pride themselves on their successful hunts, especially when they divide the limbs of the animals which they have caught with the huntsmen and the hounds, as being not only brave hunters but men of very sociable dispositions. But anyone who is a sound interpreter of the sacred constitution and code of laws would quite naturally blame them, since the lawgiver of that code has expressly forbidden any enjoyment of carcasses or of bodies torn by beasts for the reasons mentioned before. 121 But if any one of those who devote themselves wholly to meditating on and practising virtue were suddenly to take a liking to gymnastic exercises and hunting, regarding hunting as a kind of prelude to, and representation of, the wars and dangers to be faced against the enemy, then, whenever such a man is successful in his sport, he ought to give the beasts which he has killed to his dogs as a feast for them, and as a reward or wages for their successful boldness and their irreproachable alliance. But he ought not himself to touch them, since he has already been taught, through the case of irrational animals, what feelings he ought to have toward his enemies. For he ought to carry on war against them, not for the sake of unrighteous gain like those who make a dishonest trade of all their actions, but either in revenge for some calamities which he has previously suffered at their hands, or in view of some he expects to suffer. 122 But some men, with open mouths, carry even the excessive luxury and boundless intemperance of Sardanapalus to such an indefinite and unlimited extent, being wholly absorbed in the invention of senseless pleasures, that they prepare sacrifices which ought never to be offered, strangling their victims, and stifling the essence of life, which they ought to let depart free and unrestrained, burying the blood, as it were, in the body. For it should have been enough for them to enjoy the flesh by itself, without touching any of those parts which have any connection with the soul or life. 123 For this reason Moses, in another passage, establishes a law about blood, that one may eat neither the blood nor the fat. The blood is forbidden for the reason I have already mentioned, that it is the essence of the life; not of the mental and rational life, but of the life of the outward senses, through which we and the irrational animals alike share a common existence. CONCERNING THE SOUL OR LIFE OF MAN For the essence of the soul of man is the breath of God, especially if we follow the account of Moses, who, in his history of the creation of the world, says that God breathed into the first man, the founder of our race, the breath of life; breathing it into the principal part of his body, namely the face, where the outward senses are established, the body-guards of the mind, as if it were the great king. And what was breathed into his face in this way was clearly the breath of the air, or whatever else there may be which is even more excellent than the breath of the air, as being a ray emitted from the blessed and thrice-happy nature of God. 124 But Moses commanded men to abstain from eating fat, because it is gross. And again, he gave us this injunction, to instil temperance and a zeal for an austere life: we should give up what is easy and readily available, and willingly face anxieties and labours to acquire virtue. 125 For this reason these two parts are to be taken out of every victim and burnt with fire, as a kind of first fruits, namely, the fat and the blood; the one poured on the altar as a libation, and the other used as fuel for the flame, applied instead of oil, because of its fatness, to the consecrated and holy flame. 126 The lawgiver blames some persons of his time as gluttons, and for believing that the mere indulgence of luxury is the happiest of all possible conditions, not content to live this way only in cities that had abundant supplies and stores of all kinds of necessary things, but carrying their effeminacy even into pathless and untrodden deserts, and choosing to have markets there too for fish and meat, and all things which can contribute to an easy life: 127 then, when a scarcity arose, they assembled together and raised an outcry, and looked miserable, and with shameless audacity impeached their ruler, and did not stop making disturbances until they got what they desired; and they obtained it to their destruction, for two reasons: first, so that it might be shown that all things are possible for God, who can find a way in the most difficult and apparently hopeless circumstances; and secondly, so that punishment might fall on those who were intemperate in their gluttonous appetites, and obstinate resisters of holiness. 128 For a vast cloud rose out of the sea and showered down quails around sunrise, and the birds overshadowed the camp and all the district around it for a day's journey for a well-equipped active man. And the birds flew at a height of about two cubits from the ground, in order that they might be easily caught. 129 It would therefore have been natural for them, amazed at the marvellous nature of the prodigy they saw, to be satisfied with the sight, and, filled with piety, to nourish their souls on it, and to abstain from eating flesh; but these men, on the contrary, stirred up their desires even more than before, and pursued these birds as the greatest good imaginable, and, seizing them with both hands, filled their bosoms; then, having stored them up in their tents, they went out to catch others, for immoderate covetousness has no limit. And when they had collected every kind of food they devoured it insatiably, about to perish, vain-minded generation that they were, by their own fulness; 130 and indeed before long they did perish by the purging of their bile, so that the place itself took its name from the calamity that fell upon them, for it was called the graves of their lust, and, as the scripture teaches us, there is no greater evil in the soul than lust. 131 For this reason Moses says beautifully in his recommendations, "Do not let every man do that which seems good to his own eyes," which is equivalent to saying, do not let anyone gratify his own desire, but let each person seek to please God, and the world, and nature, and wise men, repudiating self-love, if he wants to become a good and virtuous man. 132 This may be enough to say, and it is in fact all I am able to put forward, about the laws that bear on appetite and desire by way of filling up the whole body of the ten commandments, and of the subordinate injunctions contained in them; for if we are to regard the brief headings delivered as oracles by the voice of God as the generic laws, and all the particular ordinances which Moses subsequently interpreted and added as the special laws; then great care and skill are needed to keep the arrangement unconfused so that it can be accurately understood, and so I have taken great care, and have assigned and apportioned to each of these generic laws of the whole code all that properly belonged to it. 133 But enough of this. We must not, however, be unaware that just as there are some particular injunctions related separately to each of the ten generic commandments, which have nothing in common with any of the others, so too there are some things to be observed which are common to them all, suited not to one or two, as people say, but to all ten commandments. 134 By this I mean the virtues of common utility, for each one of these ten laws separately, and all of them together, train men and encourage them to prudence, and justice, and piety, towards God and all the rest of the company of virtues, connecting sound words with good intentions, and virtuous actions with wise language, so that the organ of the soul may be wholly and entirely held together in good harmony, producing a well-regulated and faultless innocence and consistency of life. 135 We have spoken before of that queen of all the virtues, piety and holiness, and also of prudence and moderation; we must now go on to speak of justice, which deals with subjects akin and closely related to them. 136 One portion of justice, and not an unimportant one, relates to courts of justice and to the judge, which indeed I have mentioned before, when I was going through the subject of testimony, and dwelling on it at some length, in order that nothing which belonged to the subject should be omitted; and as I am not fond of repetitions, unless some necessity arising from the urgency of the occasion compels me to it, I will pass over that part of the subject now and turn my attention to the other portions, having said just this much by way of preface. 137 The law says that it is proper to store up justice in one's heart, and to fasten it as a sign upon one's head, and as frontlets before one's eyes, indicating figuratively by the first expression that one ought to commit the precepts of justice, not to one's ears, which are not trustworthy, for the ears deserve no credit, but to that most important and dominant part, stamping and impressing them on the most excellent of all offerings, a well approved seal; 138 and by the second expression, that it is necessary not only to form proper conceptions of what is right, but also to do without delay what one has decided is proper. For the hand is the symbol of actions, to which Moses here commands the people to attach and fasten justice, saying that it shall be a sign, though of what he has not expressly stated, because, as I understand it, it is a sign not of one particular thing but of many, and, I might almost say, of everything the life of man is concerned with. 139 And by the third expression, he implies that justice is seen everywhere as close to the eyes. Moreover he says that these things must have a certain motion; not one that is light and unsteady, but one whose agitation may rouse the sight to the spectacle plainly in front of it; for motion is suited to attract the sight, since it excites and rouses it; or, I should rather say, since it makes the eyes awake and sleepless. 140 But the man who comes to picture with the eyes of his mind things that are not at rest but in motion, exerting their energies in accordance with nature, deserves to be counted a perfect man, and no longer to be numbered among learners and pupils, but among teachers and instructors; and he ought to allow all the young men who wish to do so to drink of his wisdom as of an abundant stream flowing from a living fountain of lessons and doctrines. And if anyone, out of modesty, lacks courage, and so delays and is slow to approach him to learn, the teacher should go to him of his own accord, and pour into his ears a collection of admonitions, until the channels of his soul are filled with them. 141 And he should teach the principles of justice to all his relatives and friends, and to all young men, at home and on the road, and when they are going to bed, and when they get up; so that in all their positions, and in all their motions, and in all places whether private or public, not only waking, but also while asleep, they may be delighted with the image and conception of justice. For there is no delight more exquisite than the delight that comes from the whole soul being entirely filled with justice, while devoted to the study of its everlasting doctrines and meditations, so that it has no empty place through which injustice can enter. 142 Moreover, he commands those who have written out these things to fix them afterwards to every house belonging to a friend, and to the gates in their walls; so that all people, whether coming in or going out, whether citizens or strangers, reading the writing fixed in this way on pillars in front of the gates, may constantly remember all that ought to be said or done; and that everyone may take care neither to do nor to suffer injury; and that all persons, whether going into their houses or going out of them, men and women, children and servants, may do all that is proper and fitting toward one another and toward themselves. THAT IT IS NOT LAWFUL TO ADD ANYTHING TO OR TO TAKE ANYTHING FROM THE LAW 143 The lawgiver also gives this most admirable command: that one must not add anything to the law or take anything away from it, but must keep all the ordinances as originally established, unaltered and in the very state in which they were first delivered; for otherwise, it seems, something unjust might be added; since the wise lawgiver has left out nothing that can enable a man to share in entire and perfect justice. 144 Moreover, by this command Moses hints at the perfection of every other virtue; for each separate virtue is free from all deficiency, and is complete, deriving its perfection from itself; so that if anything were added to it or taken away from it, it would be utterly and entirely changed and altered, and take on the opposite character. 145 What I mean is this: all who are not profoundly ignorant and uninstructed, and all who have even the slightest smattering of education, know that courage is a virtue concerned with terrible things, a science that teaches one what he ought to endure and dare. 146 But if anyone, under the influence of the ignorance that comes from insolence, should be so meddlesome as to imagine himself capable of correcting what needs no correction, and should therefore venture to add or take away anything, he is in doing so altering the whole appearance of the thing, turning what had a good character into impropriety; for by any addition to courage he will produce audacity, but if he takes anything away from it he will produce cowardice, not leaving even the name of courage, the most useful of all virtues for life. 147 In the same manner, if anyone makes an addition, however small or however great, to that queen of the virtues, piety, or if he takes anything away from it, he will change and metamorphose its whole appearance, and make it something quite different; for any addition will engender superstition, and any diminution will produce impiety, real piety itself wholly disappearing under the operation, though everyone should pray for it to be continually conspicuous and brilliant, since it is the cause of the greatest of all blessings, since it produces a knowledge of the service of God, which one ought to regard as more important and more precious than any dominion or authority. 148 And we could give similar instances for every other virtue, like what we have said about those just mentioned; but since I am in the habit of avoiding wordiness, I will be content with what has been said, which may be a sufficient guide to what could be said about the virtues we leave unmentioned. ABOUT NOT MOVING LANDMARKS 149 There is also this commandment, which is of great common benefit: "You shall not move your neighbours' landmarks which the former men have set up." And this command is given, it seems, not only with respect to inheritances and the boundaries of the land, to prohibit covetousness about them, but also to guard ancient customs; for customs are unwritten laws, the doctrines of men of old, not engraved on pillars or written on paper which may be eaten by moths, but impressed in the souls of those living under the same constitution. 150 For children ought to inherit from the fathers who gave them being the national customs in which they have been brought up, and in which they have lived from their cradle, and not to despise them merely because they are handed down without being written. For the man who obeys the written laws does not rightly deserve any praise, since he acts under compulsion and the fear of punishment. But the man who keeps the unwritten laws deserves praise, because he shows a spontaneous and unconstrained virtue. 151 Some people have argued that the officers of all magistracies ought to be appointed by lot; but this practice does not benefit the multitude, for the casting of lots shows good fortune, but not virtue; at any rate many unworthy people have often obtained office in this way, men whom a good man holding supreme authority would not allow to be counted even among his subjects: 152 for even those whom some people call lesser rulers, those whom men call masters, do not accept just anyone they can find as their servants, whether born in the house or bought with money; but take only those who are obedient, and at times they sell off in one lot all those of incurably bad disposition, as unworthy to be the slaves of good men. 153 Therefore it is not right to make men who obtain those places by lot the masters and rulers of entire cities and nations, for the lot is a sort of blunder on the part of fortune, an unstable and fickle thing. Beyond all question, the casting of lots has no connection with the ability to care for the sick; for physicians do not obtain their posts by lot, but because their experience has been approved; 154 again, for the successful voyage and safety of men at sea, it is not just any man who happens to obtain the office of pilot by lot who is sent at once to the stern to steer the vessel, and who might then by his ignorance cause a needless wreck in calm and tranquil weather; rather, the charge is given to the man who appears to have learnt and carefully studied the business of a pilot from his earliest youth; this is a man who has made many voyages, and who has traversed every sea, or at all events most seas, and who has carefully learned the character of all the trading ports, and harbours, and anchorages, and places of refuge in the different islands and continents, and who knows the routes over the sea even better than, or at any rate no worse than, the roads on land, through his accurate observation of the heavenly bodies; 155 for by noting the various motions of the stars, and following and being guided by their regular revolutions, he has learnt to find for himself an unerring and easy path through the pathless waste of waters, so that (what seems the most incredible thing of all) beings whose nature is to live on land are able to cross the sea, which can only be crossed by sailing. 156 And if anyone were about to undertake the government or regulation of large and populous cities, full of inhabitants, and to attempt to settle their constitution, and to take charge of private, and public, and sacred affairs, a task which anyone may rightly call the art of arts, and the science of sciences, he would not rely on the uncertain chances of time, passing over the accurate and trustworthy test of truth; and the test of truth is proof combined with reason. 157 The all-wise Moses, seeing this by the power of his own soul, makes no mention of any authority being assigned by lot, but chooses to direct that all offices be filled by election; therefore he says, "You shall not appoint a stranger to be a ruler over you, but one of your own brothers," implying that the appointment is to be a voluntary choice, and an irreproachable selection of a ruler, whom the whole multitude with one accord shall choose; and God himself, the one who confirms all beneficial things, will add his vote in favour of such an election and set his seal on it to ratify it, regarding the man chosen in this way as the flower of his race, just as the sight is the best thing in the body. 158 And Moses also gives two reasons why it is not proper for strangers to be elected to positions of authority: first, so that they may not amass a quantity of silver, and gold, and flocks, and build up great, wickedly earned riches for themselves out of the poverty of those subject to them; and secondly, so that they may not make the nation leave its ancient homes to gratify their own covetous desires, and so compel them to emigrate, and to wander about to and fro in interminable wanderings, holding out to them hopes of gaining greater blessings that will never be fulfilled, and so making them lose the advantages they securely enjoyed. 159 For our lawgiver foresaw, as was natural, that one who was a countryman and a relative, and who also had a special share in the highest relationship of all (and that highest of relationships is one constitution and the same law, and one God whose chosen nation is his own people), would never offend in any way like those I have been describing, but, on the other hand, instead of driving the inhabitants from their homes, he would probably even provide a safe return for those of his countrymen who were scattered in a foreign land; and instead of taking away the property of others, he would even give his own property to those who were in need of it, making his own wealth common. 160 And he orders that from the first day anyone takes office, he is to write out a copy of the book of the Law with his own hand, to give him a summary and concise image of all the laws, because he wants all the ordinances laid down in it to be firmly fixed in his soul; for while a man is reading, the ideas of what he reads slip away, carried off by the speed at which he utters them; but if he is writing, they are stamped on his heart at leisure, and they settle in the heart of each individual as his mind dwells on each detail and settles down to contemplate it, and does not turn away to any other object until it has taken a firm hold of what was put before it. 161 So as he writes, he should take care every day to read and study what he has written, both so that he may gain a continual and unchanging memory of these commands, which are virtuous and beneficial for all men to observe, and so that a firm love of them and desire for them may be planted in him, as his soul is continually taught and trained to apply itself to the study and observance of the sacred laws. For familiarity, bred by long acquaintance, produces a sincere and pure friendship, not only towards men but also towards those branches of learning that are worthy to be loved; 162 and this will happen if the ruler studies not someone else's writings and records but the ones he has written out himself; for each person's own works are to some degree easier for him to understand, and also easier to grasp; 163 and besides, a man reading them will have thoughts like these in his mind: "I wrote all this, I, a ruler of such great power, without using anyone else as my scribe, though I had countless servants. Did I do all this to fill up a volume, like those who copy out books for hire, or like men who practise with their eyes and hands, training the eyes to sharpness of sight and the hands to speed of writing? Why should I have done this? No; I did it so that, once I had recorded these things in a book, I might at once go on to impress them on my heart, and stamp their divine and indelible characters on my intellect: 164 other kings carry sceptres in their hands and sit on thrones in royal state, but my sceptre will be the book of the copy of the law; that will be my boast and my undisputed glory, the signal of my irreproachable sovereignty, created after the image and model of the archetypal royal power of God. 165 "And by always relying on the sacred laws and leaning on them for support, I shall gain the most excellent things. First, equality, and no greater blessing can be found, for insolence and excessive haughtiness are the signs of a narrow-minded soul, which does not foresee the future. 166 "Equality, therefore, will win me the goodwill of all who are subject to my power, and safety, since they will repay my kindness justly; but inequality would bring terrible dangers on me, and I shall escape these by hating inequality, the purveyor of darkness and wars; and my life will be in no danger of being plotted against, because I honour equality, which has nothing to do with rebellions, but which is the parent of light and stability. 167 Moreover, I shall gain another advantage, namely, that I shall not sway this way and that, like the pans of a scale, through perverting and distorting the commandments laid down to guide me. But I shall try to keep them, walking along the middle of the plain road, keeping my own steps straight and upright, so that I may attain a life free from error or misfortune." 168 And Moses used to call the middle road the royal one, since it lay between excess and deficiency; and besides, and more especially, because in the number three the middle holds the most important place, binding the extremes on either side with an unbreakable chain, and is attended by those extremes as its bodyguards, as though it were a king. 169 Moreover, Moses says that a long-enduring sovereignty is the reward of a lawful magistrate or ruler who honours equality, and who without any corruption gives just decisions in a just manner, always striving to observe the laws; not to grant him a life of many years spent administering the commonwealth, but to teach those who do not understand that a governor who rules in accordance with the laws, even though he dies, still lives a long life through the actions he leaves behind him, immortal, the indestructible monuments of his piety and virtue. 170 And it is fitting for a man who has been thought worthy of the supreme and greatest authority to appoint successors who may govern with him and judge with him, and, in concert with him, may ordain everything which is for the common advantage; for one person would not be able, however willing he were, and even if he were the most powerful man in the world in both body and soul, to bear the weight and number of affairs that would come upon him, as he would faint under the pressure and rapidity of all kinds of business coming in upon him continually every day from all quarters, unless he had a number of people chosen for their excellence to work with him through their prudence, and power, and justice, and godly piety, men who not only avoid arrogance, but even detest it as an enemy and as the very greatest of evils. 171 For these men would stand by, and assist, and co-operate with a virtuous and holy man, one who hated evil as much as they did, and would be the most suitable persons to lighten and relieve his labours. And besides, since some of the matters that would force themselves on his attention are of greater importance and others of less, the chief will very reasonably hand the less important ones to his lieutenants, while he himself would necessarily become the most accurate judge of the weightier matters. 172 But the affairs we ought to regard as the most weighty are not, as some people think, those in which people of reputation are in dispute with other people of reputation, or rich men with rich men, or princes with princes; on the contrary, they are rather those where there are powerful men on one side, and private individuals, men of no wealth, or dignity, or reputation, on the other, men whose sole hope of escaping intolerable evils lies in the judge himself. 173 And we can find clear instances of both kinds in the sacred laws, which we would do well to imitate; for there was once a time when Moses, all by himself, decided all cases and all matters of legal controversy, labouring from morning till night. But after a while his father-in-law came to him, and seeing what a weight of business overwhelmed him, as everyone who had any dispute was constantly coming to him, gave him most excellent advice, counselling him to choose subordinate magistrates, so that they might decide the less important matters, and he might have only the more serious cases to occupy him, and in this way give himself time to rest. 174 And Moses, convinced by the arguments of Jethro (for indeed they were for his good), chose the men of the highest reputation in the whole nation and appointed them his lieutenants and judges, telling them to refer the more important cases to him. 175 And the history of the sacred laws duly records this arrangement for the instruction of rulers in all later generations: first, so that they may not despise the help of fellow counsellors, as if they could oversee everything themselves, since that all-wise and godly man, Moses, did not reject them; and secondly, so that they may learn to choose subordinates of the second rank and the third, and so make sure they are not driven to neglect matters of greater importance by being wholly taken up with more trifling affairs; for it is impossible for human nature to attend to everything at once. 176 Here we have mentioned one example of what we alluded to before. We must now add an instance of the second kind. I said that the cases of men of humble condition were important; for the widow, and the orphan, and the stranger are powerless and humble. And it is right for the supreme King, the Ruler who has supreme authority over the whole nation, to be the judge in their case; since, according to Moses, even God, the Ruler of the universe, did not exclude them from the provisions of his laws; 177 for when Moses, that holy interpreter of the will of God, raises a hymn in praise of the virtues of the living God in these words, "God is great and mighty, one who is no respecter of persons, and who does not take gifts to guide him in his judgment." He adds for whom he gives judgment: not for satraps, and tyrants, and men who hold power by land and sea, but he gives judgment for the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow. 178 For the first, because he has made his own kinsmen, the only people it was natural for him to have as allies and champions, into his irreconcilable enemies, by leaving their camp and making his home with the truth, and with the honour of the one Being who is entitled to honour, abandoning all the fabulous inventions and polytheistic notions which his fathers, and grandfathers, and ancestors, and all his kindred, who cling to the beautiful settlement which he has forsaken, used to honour. For the second, because he has lost his father and mother, his natural defenders and protectors, and with them the only power bound to stand by him as an ally. And lastly, for the widow, because she has lost her husband, who succeeded her parents as her guardian and protector; for in relationship a husband is to his wife what her parents are to a virgin. 179 And one may almost say that the whole nation of the Jews can be regarded as orphans, compared with all the other nations in other lands; for other nations, whenever they are afflicted by calamities not inflicted by God, do not lack help, because of their frequent contact with other nations through their habitual dealings in common. But this nation of the Jews has no such allies because of the peculiarity of its laws and customs. And their laws are of necessity strict and rigorous, as they are intended to train them to the greatest height of virtue; and what is strict and rigorous is austere. And most people avoid such laws and customs, because they are inclined to pleasure and embrace it. 180 But, nevertheless, Moses says that the great Ruler of the universe, whose inheritance they are, always feels compassion and pity for the orphaned and desolate among his people, because they have been dedicated to him, the Creator and Father of all, as a sort of first-fruits of the whole human race. 181 And the cause of this dedication to God was the excessive and admirable righteousness and virtue of the founders of the nation, which remain like undying plants, bearing fruit that will always flourish for the salvation of their descendants, and to the benefit of all persons and all things, provided only that the sins they commit are curable and not wholly unpardonable. 182 So let no one think that nobility of birth is a perfect good and therefore neglect virtuous actions, bearing in mind that the man who is born of virtuous parents and then brings disgrace on them through the wickedness of his disposition and conduct deserves greater anger; for if he has examples of goodness at home to imitate, and yet never copies them so as to correct his own life and make it healthy and virtuous, he deserves reproach. 183 By a most just and reasonable prohibition, the law also forbids the man who has undertaken the care and government of the common interests of the state to act treacherously among the people; for a treacherous disposition is the mark of an illiberal and very slavish soul, which seeks to hide its real nature behind hypocrisy; 184 for, in reality, a ruler ought to stand up in defence of his subjects as a father would in defence of his children, so that he may be honoured by them as if they were his own real children; and so good rulers are, to tell the plain truth, the common parents of their cities and nations, showing them equal, and sometimes even greater, goodwill; 185 but those men who acquire great power and authority to the injury and damage of their subjects ought to be called not rulers but enemies, since they are acting the part of implacable enemies. Yet those who injure a person treacherously are even more wicked than those who oppose him openly, since the latter can be repelled without difficulty, as they show their hostility undisguised; but the malice of the others is difficult to detect and hard to expose, like the conduct of men on the stage, who wear costumes that do not belong to them, in order to conceal their real appearance. 186 But there is a kind of pre-eminence and superior authority which, I might almost say, pervades every part of life, varying only in size and quantity; for the first man in a village is what the king of a city is, and so are the master of a house, and a physician among the sick, and a general in his camp, and an admiral with respect to his crew and to his passengers, and a captain of a ship in regard to merchant vessels and transports, and a pilot among common sailors, every one of whom has power to make things either better or worse. But they ought to wish to conduct themselves in everything for the best, and the best is to use all their energies to assist people and not to injure them; 187 for this is to act in imitation of God, since he also has the power to do either good or evil, but his inclination causes him only to do good. And the creation and arrangement of the world shows this, for he has called into existence what previously had no being, creating order out of disorder, and distinctive qualities out of things which had no such qualities, and similarities out of things dissimilar, and identity out of things which were different, and intercommunion and harmony out of things that previously had neither communication nor agreement, and equality out of inequality, and light out of darkness; for he is always anxious to exert his beneficent powers in order to change whatever is disorderly from its present evil condition, and to transform it so as to bring it into a better state. 188 Therefore it is right for good rulers of a nation to imitate him in these points, if they have any desire to attain likeness to God; but since countless circumstances continually escape and elude the human mind, entangled and hampered as it is by so great a multitude of external senses, which are very well suited to seduce and deceive it with false opinions, since in fact it is, as I may say, buried in the mortal body, which may very properly be called its tomb, let no judge be ashamed to confess that he does not know what he does not know, 189 for in the first place the man who is deceived becomes worse than he was before, because he has expelled truth from the confines of his soul; in the second place, he will do great mischief to those on whose causes he is deciding by delivering a blind decision because he does not see what is just. 190 So when he does not clearly understand a case because its circumstances are tangled and unintelligible and throw uncertainty and darkness around it, he ought to decline giving a decision, and to refer the matter to judges who will understand it more accurately. And who can these judges be but the priests, and the ruler and governor of the priests? 191 For the genuine, sincere worshippers of God are made sharp in intellect by care and diligence, since they are not indifferent even to slight errors, because of the surpassing excellence of the Monarch whom they serve in every point. For this reason the priests are commanded to go to offer sacrifice sober, so that no drug that makes men err, or speak and act foolishly, may enter the mind and cloud its vision, 192 and perhaps because the real, genuine priest is at the same time a prophet, having attained to the honour of being allowed to see the only true and living God, not more because of his birth than because of his virtue. And to a prophet there is nothing unknown, since he has within himself the sun of intelligence, and rays that are never overshadowed, giving him a most accurate understanding of things that are invisible to the outward senses but intelligible to the intellect. 193 Again, merchants and pedlars, and people in the market, and all those who deal in things necessary for life, and who therefore deal in measures, and weights, and balances, since they sell both dry and liquid goods, are placed under the superintendents of the market, and these superintendents are bound to govern them if they act with moderation, doing what is right, not out of fear, but voluntarily, for spontaneous good conduct is always more honourable than good conduct that comes from compulsion. 194 For this reason the law orders these merchants and dealers, and everyone else who has adopted this way of life, to take care to provide themselves with just balances, and measures, and weights, not to practise any wicked tricks to the injury of those who buy from them, but to do and say everything with a free and guileless soul, bearing in mind that unjust gains do harm, but wealth acquired in accordance with justice is something a man cannot be deprived of; 195 and since wages are offered to artisans as a reward for their work, and since artisans are people in need, not men who have an abundance of wealth, the law commands that the payment of their wages shall not be delayed, but that their employers shall pay them the wages agreed upon the same day that they are earned; for it is absurd for the rich to avail themselves of the services of the poor, and yet, living in plenty and affluence, not to give the poor proper payment for those services at once. 196 Are these not very clear examples to teach us to guard against greater offences? For if he will not allow a payment that is sure to be made eventually to be delayed beyond the proper time, fixing the evening of the day as the time when the artisan, on returning home, is to carry his wages home with him, does he not by such a commandment much more forbid plunder and theft, and the refusal to pay debts, and everything of that sort, shaping and moulding the soul according to the approved marks of virtue and piety? 197 This commandment, too, is given with great propriety: it forbids anyone to blaspheme or speak ill, especially of a deaf man, and of one who cannot perceive through his outward senses the injuries done to him, nor retaliate equally in similar circumstances; for the most unjust conflict of all is the one in which one side only acts and the other only suffers; 198 and those who speak ill of the mute, or of people whose sense of hearing is defective, are committing the same offences as those who put stumbling blocks in the way of the blind, or who offer other obstacles to their progress; for in this case also it is impossible for the blind to step over the obstacles, as they are not aware of their existence, so they stumble over them, and they are both hindered in their progress and hurt their feet. 199 Accordingly, with great propriety and fitness, the law threatens those who devise and execute wickedness of this kind with punishment at the hand of God; since he alone holds his protecting hand over those who are unable to protect themselves and defends them, and all but says in plain words to those who injure the innocent, 200 "Foolish-minded men, do you expect to escape detection while turning the misfortunes of those men into ridicule, and committing offences against the very parts in which they are unfortunate, attacking their ears by false accusations, and their eyes by putting stumbling blocks in their path? But you will never escape the notice of God, who sees everything and governs everything, while you insult the calamities of miserable men in this way, so as to avoid meeting similar distresses yourselves, since your bodies are also liable to all kinds of diseases, and your outward senses are susceptible of injury and mutilation, being such that, from a very slight and ordinary cause, they are often not only impaired, but crippled by incurable mutilations. 201 Why then should those who forget themselves, and who in their arrogance fancy that they themselves are superior to the ordinary natural weakness of mankind, and that they are out of the reach of the invisible and unexpected attacks of fortune, which often aims sudden blows at all people, and which has often wrecked men who up to that moment had enjoyed a prosperous voyage through life, when they had almost arrived in the very harbour of ultimate happiness, why, I say, should such men gloat over and insult the misfortunes of others, having no respect for justice, the ruler of human life, who sits by the side of the great Ruler of the universe, who surveys all things with sleepless and most piercing eyes, and sees what is hidden in recesses as clearly as if it were in pure sunlight? 202 It seems to me that these men would not spare even the dead, in the extravagance of their cruelty, but, according to the proverb so commonly quoted, would even kill the slain over again, since in a sense they see fit to insult and mistreat those of their members which are already dead; for eyes which do not see are dead, and ears which are devoid of the power of hearing are devoid of life; so that if the man himself to whom these members belong were to die, they would then show their merciless and implacable nature, performing none of the humane or compassionate acts that even enemies in irreconcilable wars show to the dead. This is enough to say on this subject. 203 After this the lawgiver goes on to attach to these commandments a somewhat similar harmony or series of injunctions; commanding breeders not to breed from animals of different species; not to sow a vineyard so as to make it bear two crops at once; and not to wear garments woven of two different substances, which are a mixed and inferior work. We have already mentioned the first of these injunctions in our treatise on adulterers, to make it clearer that our people ought not to be eager for marriages with foreigners, which corrupt the dispositions of the women and also destroy the good hopes that might be held for the birth of legitimate children. For the lawgiver, who has forbidden all copulation between irrational animals of different species, appears to have driven all adulterers far away altogether. 204 We must now speak of this rule again in this treatise of ours on justice. For we must take care not to pass over the opportunity of adapting it to as many particulars as possible. It is just, then, to bring together the things which are capable of union; and animals of the same species are by nature capable of union, as, on the other hand, all animals of different species are incapable of any admixture or union, and the man who brings about unlawful unions between such animals is an unjust man, transgressing the ordinances of nature; 205 but the truly sacred law takes such great care to provide for the maintenance of justice, that it will not permit even the ploughing of the land to be carried on by animals of unequal strength, and forbids a farmer to plough with an ass and a heifer yoked to the same plough, for fear that the weaker animal, being compelled to exert itself to keep up with the superior power of the stronger animal, might become exhausted and sink under the effort; 206 and the bull is looked upon as the stronger animal, and is enrolled in the class of clean beasts and animals, while the ass is a weaker animal and of the class of unclean beasts; but he has nevertheless not begrudged the animals which appear weaker the help they can derive from justice, in order, I imagine, to teach judges most forcibly that they must never in their decisions give the worse fate to the humbly born, in matters the investigation of which depends not on birth but on virtue and vice. 207 The last commandment concerning things yoked in pairs resembles these injunctions: it is unlawful to wear together substances of a different character, such as wool and linen; for in the case of these substances, not only does the difference prevent any union, but also the superior strength of the one substance is more likely to tear the other than to unite with it when they are put to use. 208 The commandment which came in the middle of the three injunctions about pairs was not to sow a vineyard so as to make it bear two crops at the same time; the object of this law being, in the first place, that things of different species might not be confused by being mixed together; for crops grown from seed have no connection with trees, nor trees with crops grown from seed; for this reason nature has not assigned them both the same time for the production of their fruits, but has assigned the spring to the one as the season of their harvest, and the end of summer to the others as the season for gathering their fruits; 209 accordingly, at the same period of the year the one have withered, having bloomed earlier, while the others are just budding, having been dried up before; for the crops which are produced from seed begin to flourish in the winter, when the trees are losing their leaves; and in the spring, on the contrary, when all the crops which are produced from seed are drying up, the wood of all trees, whether wild or improved by cultivation, is putting out shoots; and one may almost say that the period in which the crops produced from seed come to perfection is the same as the one in which the crops of the trees begin to be productive. 210 Very naturally, therefore, God has separated things so wholly different from one another, both in their natures and in the period of their flowering, and in the seasons when they produce their appropriate fruits, and has appointed different situations for them, producing order out of disorder; for order is closely connected with arrangement, and disorder with a lack of arrangement. 211 In the second place, so that the two different species may not each inflict injury on the other and suffer it in return, because one kind draws the nourishment away from the other kind; and if that nourishment is divided into small portions, as happens in times of famine and of scarcity of necessaries, all plants of every kind will in every place become weak, and will be either afflicted with barrenness, becoming utterly unproductive, or at any rate will never bear reasonably fine fruit, since they have already been weakened by lack of nourishment. 212 In the third place, so that the naturally fertile land may not be oppressed with burdens beyond its strength, partly by the continued and uninterrupted thickness of the crops which are sown, and of the trees which are planted in the same place, and partly by the double crops exacted from the ground; for it ought to be quite sufficient for the owner to draw one yearly tribute from one spot, just as it is sufficient for a king to receive his tribute from a city once a year; and trying to extract larger revenues is an act of excessive covetousness, which attempts to overturn all the laws of nature. 213 For this reason the law might well say to those who have determined to sow their vineyards with seed out of pure covetousness; "Do not be worse than those kings who have subdued cities with arms and warlike expeditions, for even they, from a prudent regard for the future and from a proper wish to spare their subjects, are content to receive one payment of tribute each year, since they do not wish to reduce them utterly to the very extremity of need and distress in a short time; 214 but if in the spring you exact from the same piece of ground crops of barley and of wheat, and in the summer the crops from the fruit-bearing trees, you will be exhausting it by a double contribution; for then it will very naturally grow faint and fail, like an athlete who is never allowed any time to catch his breath and collect his strength for the beginning of another contest. 215 "But you seem to have rashly forgotten those precepts of general advantage which I instructed you to observe. For certainly, if you had remembered the commandment concerning the seventh year, in which I commanded you to allow the land to remain fallow and sacred, without being exhausted by any agricultural operation of any kind, because of the labours it has gone through and undergone for the six preceding years, producing its crops at the appointed seasons of the year in accordance with the ordinances of nature; you would not now be introducing innovations, and giving vent to all your covetous desires, by seeking unprecedented crops, sowing land fit for growing trees, and especially one planted with vines, in order by two crops every year, both founded on iniquity, to increase your substance out of undue avarice, amassing money by lawless desires." 216 For the same man would never bring himself to let his land lie fallow every seventh year without exacting any revenue from it, so that his land would not be exhausted by over-production but could recover by rest, and yet at the same time oppress and overwhelm it by double burdens; 217 therefore I have judged it necessary to pronounce all acquisition or exaction of wealth in this way unholy and impious; I mean the production of the fruit of trees, and of such crops as are derived from seed, because such fertility in a sense exhausts and destroys the life-giving principle in the good soil, and also because, by requiring so much, the owner of the land is insulting and abusing the bounty and liberality of God, giving full rein to his unrighteous desires, and not restraining them by any limits. 218 Should we not, then, feel attached to commandments such as these, which tend to restrain us from the acts of covetousness common among men and to remove us far from them, blunting the edge of the passion itself? For the private individual who has learnt to renounce all unrighteous gain in the matter of his plants, if he should acquire power in weightier matters and become a king, would adopt the same practice towards men and women, not exacting twofold tributes from them, not exhausting his subjects with taxes and contributions; for the habits in which he has been brought up would be sufficient for him, and would be able to soften the harshness of his disposition, and in a sense to educate him and re-mould him to a better character. And the better character is the one which justice impresses upon the soul. 219 These, then, are the laws which he lays down for each individual to observe. But there are other commandments of a more general nature which he enjoins on the whole nation in common, urging them to observe them not only with regard to their own friends and allies, but also with regard to those who are not part of their alliance. 220 For if, says Moses, they shut themselves up within their walls and make their necks stiff, then let your young men arm themselves well, and being provided with all the preparations necessary for war, go out and fortify their camp all around, and wait watchfully, not indulging their anger so as to neglect reason, but taking care to apply themselves firmly and strenuously to what must be done. 221 Let them, therefore, at once send out heralds to invite the enemy to an agreement, and at the same time let them display the power and formidable character of the encamped force; and if the enemy, repenting of the evil designs which they had conceived, submit and turn to peace in any way, then let the people gladly receive them and make a truce with them; for peace, even though it is very unfavourable, is more advantageous than war. 222 But if they persevere in their folly, and push it further, acting with audacity, then let our people display vigorous confidence, relying also on the invincible alliance of justice, and so let them advance, placing their destructive engines against the walls, and when they have made a breach in some part of them let them all go in together; and hurling their spears with accurate aim, and brandishing their swords, and killing the enemies all around, let them drive them back without flinching, inflicting on them what they themselves were meant to suffer, 223 until they have overthrown the whole army arrayed against them, every man of them, and taken their silver, and their gold, and all the booty. And let them bring fire against their city, and burn it so that it may never again, after an interval of rest, raise its head and excite wars and tumults, and also to terrify and warn the neighbouring states, since it is by the calamities of others that men are taught to act with moderation. But let them allow the girls and the women to go free, since they did not expect to suffer any of the evils which war brings upon men at their hands, as they are exempt from all military service through their natural weakness. 224 From all this it is plain that the nation of the Jews is allied with and friendly to all those who are of like mind, and all who are peaceful in their intentions; and that it does not deserve contempt as a nation that submits out of cowardice to those who begin to treat it unjustly; but when it goes forth to defend itself, it distinguishes between those who are habitually plotting against it and those who are not; 225 for eagerness to kill all men, even those who have committed only slight offences or none at all against one, I would call the conduct of an inhuman and pitiless soul, as I would also call treating women as if they were an addition to the men who carry on war, when their way of life is naturally peaceful and domestic. 226 But our lawgiver implants such a love of justice in all men who live under the institution he has established, that he does not permit them to injure the fertile land of even a hostile city by ravaging it, or by cutting down the trees, so as to destroy the crops. 227 "Why," he says, "do you bear a grudge against inanimate things, which are in their nature quiet, and which produce wholesome fruits? Does the tree, my friend, display the hostile spirit of a man who is an enemy, so that you are to tear it up by the roots in retaliation for the evils which it has inflicted, or which it has designed to inflict upon you? 228 On the contrary, it assists you, bestowing on you, when you are victorious, an abundance of necessary food, and of supplies which help to make life happy and luxurious; for it is not men alone who contribute revenues to their lords, but plants offer even more useful tribute at the fixed seasons of the year, a tribute without which men cannot live." 229 But there is no prohibition against their cutting down those trees which are barren and unproductive, and which are not cultivated for food, for the purpose of making staves, or poles, or posts, or fences; and, when occasion requires, ladders, and engines, and wooden towers; for the chief use of these kinds of trees is for these and similar purposes. 230 We have now enumerated the matters which belong to justice; but as for justice itself, what poet or orator could celebrate it in worthy terms, since it is beyond all panegyric and all praise? At any rate, it has one most important good which, even if one were to pass over all its other parts in silence, would be an all-sufficient panegyric on it; 231 for this is the principle of equality, which is, as those who have accurately investigated the secrets of nature have handed down to us, the mother of justice; and equality is a light which is never shaded; the sun (if one must speak the plain truth) perceptible to the intellect alone, since inequality, on the contrary, in which both the superior and the inferior are found, is the beginning and source of darkness; 232 it is equality which, by its unchangeable laws and ordinances, has arranged, in their present beautiful order, all the things in heaven and earth; for who does not know this fact, that the days are measured in due proportion to the nights, and the nights in due proportion to the days, by the sun, according to the equality of proportionate distances? 233 Nature, therefore, has marked out those periods in every year, which are called the equinoxes, from the state of things which exists at that time, namely, the spring and the autumnal equinox, so distinctly that even the most illiterate people are aware of the equality which then exists between the length of the days and of the nights. 234 Again, are not the periods of the moon, as she advances and retraces her course, from a crescent to a full circle, and again, from a complete orb to a crescent, also measured by an equality of distances? For her diminution is as great and as long as the period and amount of her increase, in both respects, magnitude and duration, both in the number of days and in the size of her orb. 235 And as equality is especially honoured in heaven, that purest of all essences, so she is also honoured in the neighbour of heaven, the air. For as the year is portioned out into four divisions, the air is formed by nature to endure changes and alterations at what are called the seasons of the year, and it displays an indescribable regularity in its irregularity; for as the atmosphere is divided by an equal number of months into winter, and spring, and summer, and autumn, it completes the whole year by allotting three months to each season; as, in fact, the very name of the year (eniautos) suggests. For it in itself (autos en autō) contains everything, being complete in itself, though it would not be able to do this if it were not aided by the regular revolutions of the seasons of the year. 236 Again, this same equality extends from the heavenly bodies, and from those which are raised on high, to the things upon earth, raising on high its own pure nature, which is akin to the air, and sending downwards its beams like the sun, as a sort of secondary light, 237 for all the things which are inharmonious or irregular among us are caused by inequality, and all those which have the regularity that befits them are the work of equality, which in the universal essence of the universe one may fairly call the world, in cities may call that best regulated and most excellent of all constitutions, democracy, and in bodies health, and in souls virtue. 238 For, on the contrary, inequality is the cause of diseases and wickednesses; and the life of the longest-lived man of the human race would run out if he were to attempt to enumerate all the praiseworthy qualities of equality, and of its offspring, justice. So it seems best to me to be satisfied with what has already been said, which may be sufficient to rouse the memory of those who are fond of learning, and to leave the remaining circumstances unwritten in their souls, as divine images in a most sacred place.