על חיי משה, ספר א כ״וOn the Life of Moses, Book I 26
א׳
1[143] With all these plagues and punishments was Egypt admonished, none of which touched the Hebrews, though they dwelt in the same cities and villages and houses, and though earth, water, air, fire, the constituent parts of that nature which it is impossible to escape, joined in the attack. And the strangest thing of all was that the same elements in the same place and at the same time brought destruction to one people and safety to the other.
ב׳
2[144] The river changed to blood, but not for the Hebrews; for, when they wished to draw from it, it turned into good drinking-water. The frog tribe crept from the water on to the land, and filled the market-places, the farm buildings and houses, but held aloof from the Hebrews alone, as though it knew how to distinguish who should be punished and who should not.
ג׳
3[145] Neither the gnats, nor the dog-flies nor the locusts, which did so great damage to plants and fruits and animals and men, winged their way to them; neither the rainstorm nor the hail nor the thunderbolts which fell continuously reached as far as them. That most painful ulceration was not felt, or even imagined, by them. When the others were wrapped in profound darkness, they lived in clear radiance with the light of day shining upon them. When the first-born of the Egyptians was slain, no Hebrew died, nor was it likely that they should, when even the murrain, by which numberless cattle perished, did not involve a single herd of theirs in the destruction.
ד׳
4[146] Indeed, I think that everyone who witnessed the events of that time could not but have thought of the Hebrews as spectators of the sufferings of others, and not merely spectators in safety, but learners thereby of the finest and most profitable of lessons—piety. For never was judgement so clearly passed on good and bad, a judgement which brought perdition to the latter and salvation to the former.
