Elmer U. Hoenshel - "My Three Days In Gilead"

Virgil - "Vergil's Bucolics in Latin"

William Shakespeare - "Twelfe Night, Or what you will"

Father Abram J. Ryan - "Patriotic, Religious, Miscellaneous"

The Antiquities of the Jews

F >> Flavius Josephus >> The Antiquities of the Jews




25. Let no one lend to any one of the Hebrews upon usury, neither
usury of what is eaten or what is drunken, for it is not just to
make advantage of the misfortunes of one of thy own countrymen;
but when thou hast been assistant to his necessities, think it
thy gain if thou obtainest their gratitude to thee; and withal
that reward which will come to thee from God, for thy humanity
towards him.

26. Those who have borrowed either silver or any sort of fruits,
whether dry or wet, (I mean this, when the Jewish affairs shall,
by the blessing of God, be to their own mind,) let the borrowers
bring them again, and restore them with pleasure to those who
lent them, laying them up, as it were, in their own treasuries,
and justly expecting to receive them thence, if they shall want
them again. But if they be without shame, and do not restore it,
let not the lender go to the borrower's house, and take a pledge
himself, before judgment be given concerning it; but let him
require the pledge, and let the debtor bring it of himself,
without the least opposition to him that comes upon him under the
protection of the law. And if he that gave the pledge be rich,
let the creditor retain it till what he lent be paid him again;
but if he be poor, let him that takes it return it before the
going down of the sun, especially if the pledge be a garment,
that the debtor may have it for a covering in his sleep, God
himself naturally showing mercy to the poor. It is also not
lawful to take a millstone, nor any utensil thereto belonging,
for a pledge, that the debtor, may not be deprived of instruments
to get their food withal, and lest they be undone by their
necessity.

27. Let death be the punishment for stealing a man; but he that
hath purloined gold or silver, let him pay double. If any one
kill a man that is stealing something out of his house, let him
be esteemed guiltless, although the man were only breaking in at
the wall. Let him that hath stolen cattle pay fourfold what is
lost, excepting the case of an ox, for which let the thief pay
fivefold. Let him that is so poor that he cannot pay what mulet
is laid upon him, be his servant to whom he was adjudged to pay
it.

28. If any one be sold to one of his own nation, let him serve
him six years, and on the seventh let him go free. But if he have
a son by a woman servant in his purchaser's house, and if, on
account of his good-will to his master, and his natural affection
to his wife and children, he will be his servant still, let him
be set free only at the coming of the year of jubilee, which is
the fiftieth year, and let him then take away with him his
children and wife, and let them be free also.

29. If any one find gold or silver on the road, let him inquire
after him that lost it, and make proclamation of the place where
he found it, and then restore it to him again, as not thinking it
right to make his own profit by the loss of another. And the same
rule is to be observed in cattle found to have wandered away into
a lonely place. If the owner be not presently discovered, let him
that is the finder keep it with himself, and appeal to God that
he has not purloined what belongs to another.

30. It is not lawful to pass by any beast that is in distress,
when in a storm it is fallen down in the mire, but to endeavor to
preserve it, as having a sympathy with it in its pain.

31. It is also a duty to show the roads to those who do not know
them, and not to esteem it a matter for sport, when we hinder
others' advantages, by setting them in a wrong way.

32. In like manner, let no one revile a person blind or dumb.

33. If men strive together, and there be no instrument of iron,
let him that is smitten be avenged immediately, by inflicting the
same punishment on him that smote him: but if when he is carried
home he lie sick many days, and then die, let him that smote him
not escape punishment; but if he that is smitten escape death,
and yet be at great expense for his cure, the smiter shall pay
for all that has been expended during the time of his sickness,
and for all that he has paid the physician. He that kicks a woman
with child, so that the woman miscarry, (28) let him pay a fine
in money, as the judges shall determine, as having diminished the
multitude by the destruction of what was in her womb; and let
money also be given the woman's husband by him that kicked her;
but if she die of the stroke, let him also be put to death, the
law judging it equitable that life should go for life.

34. Let no one of the Israelites keep any poison (29) that may
cause death, or any other harm; but if he be caught with it, let
him be put to death, and suffer the very same mischief that he
would have brought upon them for whom the poison was prepared.

35. He that maimeth any one, let him undergo the like himself,
and be deprived of the same member of which he hath deprived the
other, unless he that is maimed will accept of money instead of
it (30) for the law makes the sufferer the judge of the value of
what he hath suffered, and permits him to estimate it, unless he
will be more severe.

36. Let him that is the owner of an ox which pusheth with his
horn, kill him: but if he pushes and gores any one in the
thrashing-floor, let him be put to death by stoning, and let him
not be thought fit for food: but if his owner be convicted as
having known what his nature was, and hath not kept him up, let
him also be put to death, as being the occasion of the ox's
having killed a man. But if the ox have killed a man-servant, or
a maid-servant, let him be stoned; and let the owner of the ox
pay thirty shekels (31) to the master of him that was slain; but
if it be an ox that is thus smitten and killed, let both the
oxen, that which smote the other and that which was killed, be
sold, and let the owners of them divide their price between them.

37. Let those that dig a well or a pit be careful to lay planks
over them, and so keep them shut up, not in order to hinder any
persons from drawing water, but that there may be no danger of
falling into them. But if any one's beast fall into such a well
or pit thus digged, and not shut up, and perish, let the owner
pay its price to the owner of the beast. Let there be a
battlement round the tops of your houses instead of a wall, that
may prevent any persons from rolling down and perishing.

38. Let him that has received any thing in trust for another,
take care to keep it as a sacred and divine thing; and let no one
invent any contrivance whereby to deprive him that hath intrusted
it with him of the same, and this whether he be a man or a woman;
no, not although he or she were to gain an immense sum of gold,
and this where he cannot be convicted of it by any body; for it
is fit that a man's own conscience, which knows what he hath,
should in all cases oblige him to do well. Let this conscience be
his witness, and make him always act so as may procure him
commendation from others; but let him chiefly have regard to God,
from whom no wicked man can lie concealed: but if he in whom the
trust was reposed, without any deceit of his own, lose what he
was intrusted withal, let him come before the seven judges, and
swear by God that nothing hath been lost willingly, or with a
wicked intention, and that he hath not made use of any part
thereof, and so let him depart without blame; but if he hath made
use of the least part of what was committed to him, and it be
lost, let him be condemned to repay all that he had received.
After the same manner as in these trusts it is to be, if any one
defraud those that undergo bodily labor for him. And let it be
always remembered, that we are not to defraud a poor man of his
wages, as being sensible that God has allotted these wages to him
instead of land and other possessions; nay, this payment is not
at all to be delayed, but to be made that very day, since God is
not willing to deprive the laborer of the immediate use of what
he hath labored for.

39. You are not to punish children for the faults of their
parents, but on account of their own virtue rather to vouchsafe
them commiseration, because they were born of wicked parents,
than hatred, because they were born of bad ones. Nor indeed ought
we to impute the sin of children to their fathers, while young
persons indulge themselves in many practices different from what
they have been instructed in, and this by their proud refusal of
such instruction.

40. Let those that have made themselves eunuchs be had in
detestation; and do you avoid any conversation with them who have
deprived themselves of their manhood, and of that fruit of
generation which God has given to men for the increase of their
kind: let such be driven away, as if they had killed their
children, since they beforehand have lost what should procure
them; for evident it is, that while their soul is become
effeminate, they have withal transfused that effeminacy to their
body also. In like manner do you treat all that is of a monstrous
nature when it is looked on; nor is it lawful to geld men or any
other animals. (32)

41. Let this be the constitution of your political laws in time
of peace, and God will be so merciful as to preserve this
excellent settlement free from disturbance: and may that time
never come which may innovate any thing, and change it for the
contrary. But since it must needs happen that mankind fall into
troubles and dangers, either undesignedly or intentionally, come
let us make a few constitutions concerning them, that so being
apprised beforehand what ought to be done, you may have salutary
counsels ready when you want them, and may not then be obliged to
go to seek what is to be done, and so be unprovided, and fall
into dangerous circumstances. May you be a laborious people, and
exercise your souls in virtuous actions, and thereby possess and
inherit the land without wars; while neither any foreigners make
war upon it, and so afflict you, nor any internal sedition seize
upon it, whereby you may do things that are contrary to your
fathers, and so lose the laws which they have established. And
may you continue in the observation of those laws which God hath
approved of, and hath delivered to you. Let all sort of warlike
operations, whether they befall you now in your own time, or
hereafter in the times of your posterity, be done out of your own
borders: but when you are about to go to war, send embassages and
heralds to those who are your voluntary enemies, for it is a
right thing to make use of words to them before you come to your
weapons of war; and assure them thereby, that although you have a
numerous army, with horses and weapons, and, above these, a God
merciful to you, and ready to assist you, you do however desire
them not to compel you to fight against them, nor to take from
them what they have, which will indeed be our gain, but what they
will have no reason to wish we should take to ourselves. And if
they hearken to you, it will be proper for you to keep peace with
them; but if they trust in their own strength, as superior to
yours, and will not do you justice, lead your army against them,
making use of God as your supreme Commander, but ordaining for a
lieutenant under him one that is of the greatest courage among
you; for these different commanders, besides their being an
obstacle to actions that are to be done on the sudden, are a
disadvantage to those that make use of them. Lead an army pure,
and of chosen men, composed of all such as have extraordinary
strength of body and hardiness of soul; but do you send away the
timorous part, lest they run away in the time of action, and so
afford an advantage to your enemies. Do you also give leave to
those that have lately built them houses, and have not yet lived
in them a year's time; and to those that have planted them
vineyards, and have not yet been partakers of their fruits, - to
continue in their own country; as well as those also who have
betrothed, or lately married them wives, lest they have such an
affection for these things that they be too sparing of their
lives, and, by reserving themselves for these enjoyments, they
become voluntary cowards, on account of their wives.

42. When you have pitched your camp, take care that you do
nothing that is cruel. And when you are engaged in a siege; and
want timber for the making of warlike engines, do not you render
the land naked by cutting down trees that bear fruit, but spare
them, as considering that they were made for the benefit of men;
and that if they could speak, they would have a just plea against
you, because, though they are not occasions of the war, they are
unjustly treated, and suffer in it, and would, if they were able,
remove themselves into another land. When you have beaten your
enemies in battle, slay those that have fought against you; but
preserve the others alive, that they may pay you tribute,
excepting the nation of the Canaanites; for as to that people,
you must entirely destroy them.

43, Take care, especially in your battles, that no woman use the
habit of a man, nor man the garment of a woman.

44. This was the form of political government which was left us
by Moses. Moreover, he had already delivered laws in writing (33)
in the fortieth year [after they came out of Egypt], concerning
which we will discourse in another book. But now on the following
days (for he called them to assemble continually) he delivered
blessings to them, and curses upon those that should not live
according to the laws, but should transgress the duties that were
determined for them to observe. After this, he read to them a
poetic song, which was composed in hexameter verse, and left it
to them in the holy book: it contained a prediction of what was
to come to pass afterward; agreeably whereto all things have
happened all along, and do still happen to us; and wherein he has
not at all deviated from the truth. Accordingly, he delivered
these books to the priest, (34) with the ark; into which he also
put the ten commandments, written on two tables. He delivered to
them the tabernacle also, and exhorted the people, that when they
had conquered the land, and were settled in it, they should not
forget the injuries of the Amalekites, but make war against them,
and inflict punishment upon them for what mischief they did them
when they were in the wilderness; and that when they had got
possession of the land of the Canaanites, and when they had
destroyed the whole multitude of its inhabitants, as they ought
to do, they should erect an altar that should face the rising
sun, not far from the city of Shechem, between the two mountains,
that of Gerizzim, situate on the right hand, and that called
Ebal, on the left; and that the army should be so divided, that
six tribes should stand upon each of the two mountains, and with
them the Levites and the priests. And that first, those that were
upon Mount Gerizzim should pray for the best blessings upon those
who were diligent about the worship of God, and the observation
of his laws, and who did not reject what Moses had said to them;
while the other wished them all manner of happiness also; and
when these last put up the like prayers, the former praised them.
After this, curses were denounced upon those that should
transgress those laws, they, answering one another alternately,
by way of confirmation of what had been said. Moses also wrote
their blessings and their curses, that they might learn them so
thoroughly, that they might never be forgotten by length of time.
And when he was ready to die, he wrote these blessings and curses
upon the altar, on each side of it; where he says also the people
stood, and then sacrificed and offered burnt-offerings, though
after that day they never offered upon it any other sacrifice,
for it was not lawful so to do. These are the constitutions of
Moses; and the Hebrew nation still live according to them.

45. On the next day, Moses called the people together, with the
women and children, to a congregation, so as the very slaves were
present also, that they might engage themselves to the
observation of these laws by oath; and that, duly considering the
meaning of God in them, they might not, either for favor of their
kindred, or out of fear of any one, or indeed for any motive
whatsoever, think any thing ought to be preferred to these laws,
and so might transgress them. That in case any one of their own
blood, or any city, should attempt to confound or dissolve their
constitution of government, they should take vengeance upon them,
both all in general, and each person in particular; and when they
had conquered them, should overturn their city to the very
foundations, and, if possible, should not leave the least
footsteps of such madness: but that if they were not able to take
such vengeance, they should still demonstrate that what was done
was contrary to their wills. So the multitude bound themselves by
oath so to do.

46. Moses taught them also by what means their sacrifices might
be the most acceptable to God; and how they should go forth to
war, making use of the stones (in the high priest's breastplate)
for their direction, (35) as I have before signified. Joshua also
prophesied while Moses was present. And when Moses had
recapitulated whatsoever he had done for the preservation of the
people, both in their wars and in peace, and had composed them a
body of laws, and procured them an excellent form of government,
he foretold, as God had declared to him "That if they
transgressed that institution for the worship of God, they should
experience the following miseries: - Their land should be full of
weapons of war from their enemies, and their cities should be
overthrown, and their temple should be burnt that they should be
sold for slaves, to such men as would have no pity on them in
their afflictions; that they would then repent, when that
repentance would no way profit them under their sufferings.
"Yet," said he, "will that God who founded your nation, restore
your cities to your citizens, with their temple also; and you
shall lose these advantages not once only, but often."

47. Now when Moses had encouraged Joshua to lead out the army
against the Canaanites, by telling him that God would assist him
in all his undertakings, and had blessed the whole multitude, he
said, "Since I am going to my forefathers, and God has determined
that this should be the day of my departure to them, I return him
thanks while I am still alive and present with you, for that
providence he hath exercised over you, which hath not only
delivered us from the miseries we lay under, but hath bestowed a
state of prosperity upon us; as also, that he hath assisted me in
the pains I took, and in all the contrivances I had in my care
about you, in order to better your condition, and hath on all
occasions showed himself favorable to us; or rather he it was who
first conducted our affairs, and brought them to a happy
conclusion, by making use of me as a vicarious general under him,
and as a minister in those matters wherein he was willing to do
you good: on which account I think it proper to bless that Divine
Power which will take care of you for the time to come, and this
in order to repay that debt which I owe him, and to leave behind
me a memorial that we are obliged to worship and honor him, and
to keep those laws which are the most excellent gift of all those
he hath already bestowed upon us, or which, if he continue
favorable to us, he will bestow upon us hereafter. Certainly a
human legislator is a terrible enemy when his laws are affronted,
and are made to no purpose. And may you never experience that
displeasure of God which will be the consequence of the neglect
of these his laws, which he, who is your Creator, hath given
you."

48. When Moses had spoken thus at the end of his life, and had
foretold what would befall to every one of their tribes (36)
afterward, with the addition of a blessing to them, the multitude
fell into tears, insomuch that even the women, by beating their
breasts, made manifest the deep concern they had when he was
about to die. The children also lamented still more, as not able
to contain their grief; and thereby declared, that even at their
age they were sensible of his virtue and mighty deeds; and truly
there seemed to be a strife betwixt the young and the old who
should most grieve for him. The old grieved because they knew
what a careful protector they were to be deprived of, and so
lamented their future state; but the young grieved, not only for
that, but also because it so happened that they were to be left
by him before they had well tasted of his virtue. Now one may
make a guess at the excess of this sorrow and lamentation of the
multitude, from what happened to the legislator himself; for
although he was always persuaded that he ought not to be cast
down at the approach of death, since the undergoing it was
agreeable to the will of God and the law of nature, yet what the
people did so overbore him, that he wept himself. Now as he went
thence to the place where he was to vanish out of their sight,
they all followed after him weeping; but Moses beckoned with his
hand to those that were remote from him, and bade them stay
behind in quiet, while he exhorted those that were near to him
that they would not render his departure so lamentable. Whereupon
they thought they ought to grant him that favor, to let him
depart according as he himself desired; so they restrained
themselves, though weeping still towards one another. All those
who accompanied him were the senate, and Eleazar the high priest,
and Joshua their commander. Now as soon as they were come to the
mountain called Abarim, (which is a very high mountain, situate
over against Jericho, and one that affords, to such as are upon
it, a prospect of the greatest part of the excellent land of
Canaan,) he dismissed the senate; and as he was going to embrace
Eleazar and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud
stood over him on the sudden, and he disappeared in a certain
valley, although he wrote in the holy books that he died, which
was done out of fear, lest they should venture to say that,
because of his extraordinary virtue, he went to God.

49. Now Moses lived in all one hundred and twenty years; a third
part of which time, abating one month, he was the people's ruler;
and he died on the last month of the year, which is called by the
Macedonians Dystrus, but by us Adar, on the first day of the
month. He was one that exceeded all men that ever were in
understanding, and made the best use of what that understanding
suggested to him. He had a very graceful way of speaking and
addressing himself to the multitude; and as to his other
qualifications, he had such a full command of his passions, as if
he hardly had any such in his soul, and only knew them by their
names, as rather perceiving them in other men than in himself. He
was also such a general of an army as is seldom seen, as well as
such a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree,
that whatsoever he pronounced, you would think you heard the
voice of God himself. So the people mourned for him thirty days:
nor did ever any grief so deeply affect the Hebrews as did this
upon the death of Moses: nor were those that had experienced his
conduct the only persons that desired him, but those also that
perused the laws he left behind him had a strong desire after
him, and by them gathered the extraordinary virtue he was master
of. And this shall suffice for the declaration of the manner of
the death of Moses.

BOOK V.

Containing The Interval Of Four Hundred And Seventy-Six Years.

From The Death Of Moses To The Death Of Eli.

CHAPTER 1.

How Joshua, The Commander Of The Hebrews, Made War With The
Canaanites, And Overcame Them, And Destroyed Them, And Divided
Their Land By Lot To The Tribes Of Israel.

1. When Moses was taken away from among men, in the manner
already described, and when all the solemnities belonging to the
mourning for him were finished, and the sorrow for him was over,
Joshua commanded the multitude to get themselves ready for an
expedition. He also sent spies to Jericho to discover what forces
they had, and what were their intentions; but he put his camp in
order, as intending soon to pass over Jordan at a proper season.
And calling to him the rulers of the tribe of Reuben, and the
governors of the tribe of Gad, and [the half tribe of] Manasseh,
for half of this tribe had been permitted to have their
habitation in the country of the Amorites, which was the seventh
part of the land of Canaan, (1) he put them in mind what they had
promised Moses; and he exhorted them that, for the sake of the
care that Moses had taken of them who had never been weary of
taking pains for them no, not when he was dying, and for the sake
of the public welfare, they would prepare themselves, and readily
perform what they had promised; so he took fifty thousand of them
who followed him, and he marched from Abila to Jordan, sixty
furlongs.

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