על חיי משה, ספר א כ״הOn the Life of Moses, Book I 25
א׳
1[140] The Hebrews, thus hunted as outcasts from the land, and conscious of their own high lineage, were emboldened to act as was natural to them, as freemen and men who were not oblivious of the injustices which malice had inflicted on them;
ב׳
2[141] for they took out with them much spoil, which they carried partly on their backs, partly laid on their beasts of burden. And they did this not in avarice, or, as their accusers might say, in covetousness of what belonged to others. No, indeed. In the first place, they were but receiving a bare wage for all their time of service; secondly, they were retaliating, not on an equal but on a lesser scale, for their enslavement. For what resemblance is there between forfeiture of money and deprivation of liberty, for which men of sense are willing to sacrifice not only their substance but their life?
ג׳
3[142] In either case, their action was right, whether one regard it as an act of peace, the acceptance of payment long kept back through reluctance to pay what was due, or as an act of war, the claim under the law of the victors to take their enemies’ goods. For the Egyptians began the wrongdoing by reducing guests and suppliants to slavery like captives, as I said before. The Hebrews, when the opportunity came, avenged themselves without warlike preparations, shielded by justice whose arm was extended to defend them.
