על בריאת העולם ס׳On the Account of the World's Creation 60
א׳
1[167] Those who were the first to become slaves to a passion grievous and hard to heal at once had experience of the wages paid by Pleasure. The woman incurred the violent woes of travail-pangs, and the griefs which come one after another all through the remainder of life. Chief among them are all those that have to do with children at birth and in their bringing up, in sickness and in health, in good fortune and evil fortune. In the next place she tasted deprivation of liberty, and the authority of the husband at her side, whose commands she must perforce obey. The man, in his turn, incurred labours and distress in the unceasing sweat of his brow to gain the necessaries of life. He was without those good things which the earth had been taught to bear of itself independently of all skill in the husbandman. His life was spent in unbroken toils in the pursuit of food and livelihood to save him from perishing by famine.
ב׳
2[168] For I imagine that, just as sun and moon always give their light after once for all being bidden to do so when the universe was first created, and continue to keep the divine ordinance for no other reason than that evil has been sent into exile far away from heaven’s frontiers; even so would earth’s deep and fertile soil, unaided by the skill of agricultural labourers, bear rich abundance as the seasons come round. As it is, when evil began to get the better of the virtues, the ever-flowing springs of the bounties of God were closed, that they might not bring supplies to those felt to be undeserving of them.
ג׳
3[169] If the human race had had to undergo the fitting penalty, it must needs have been wiped out by reason of its ingratitude to God its benefactor and preserver. But He being merciful took pity on it and moderated the punishment, suffering the race to continue, but no longer as before supplying it with food ready to its hand, that men might not, by indulging the twin evils of idleness and satiety, wax insolent in wrongdoing.