על השכר והעונש ט׳On Rewards and Punishments 9
א׳
1[52] One other man I will mention and then, as I wish to avoid prolixity, proceed to the next part of the subject. This man is he who in the sacred contests one after the other was proclaimed the winner of the crown. By sacred contests I do not mean those which men regard as such; they are unholy since they offer instead of the utmost penalties honours and crowns to violence, outrage and injustice. I mean those which the soul has to fight out, wielding successfully wisdom against folly and knavery, moderation against profligacy and miserliness, courage against rashness and cowardice, and the other virtues against the opposite vices which are at variance with one another and with other vices too.
ב׳
2[53] Now all the virtues are virgins, but the fairest among them all, the acknowledged queen of the dance, is piety, which Moses, the teacher of divine lore, in a special degree had for his own, and through it gained among a multitude of other gifts, which have been described in the treatises dealing with his life, four special rewards, the offices of king, legislator, prophet and high priest.
ג׳
3[54] For he did not become king in the ordinary way by the aid of troops and weapons or of the might of ships and infantry and cavalry. It was God who appointed him by the free judgement of his subjects, God who created in them the willingness to choose him as their sovereign. Of him alone we read that without the gifts of speech or possessions or money he was made a king, he who eschewed the blind wealth and embraced that which has eyes to see, and, as we may say without reserve, held that all he owned was to have God for his heritage.
ד׳
4[55] This same person was also a lawgiver. For a king must enjoin and forbid and a law is nothing else but a pronouncement enjoining what ought to be done and forbidding what ought not. But in both cases there is uncertainty as to what is profitable, since through ignorance we often enjoin what should not be done and forbid what should be done, and therefore it was meet that he should receive a third gift of prophecy to keep his feet from stumbling. For the prophet is the interpreter of God who prompts from within what he should say, and with God nothing is in fault.
ה׳
5[56] Meet also that he should have the fourth office of chief priesthood to enable him armed with prophetic knowledge to worship the Self-existent, and offer up thanksgivings for his subjects when they do well and prayers and supplications for propitiation when they do amiss. All these are one in kind; they should co-exist united with bonds of harmony and be found embodied in the same person, since he who falls short in any of the four is imperfectly equipped for government and the administration of public affairs which he has undertaken will limp and halt.
