על חיי משה, ספר א מ״הOn the Life of Moses, Book I 45
א׳
1[250] So, then, he passed by the cities of this nation; but the king of the adjoining country Chananes by name, having received a report from his scouts that the host of wayfarers was at no great distance, supposed that they were disorganized and would be an easy conquest if he attacked them first. He, therefore, started with a strongly armed force of such younger men as he had around him, and by a rapid attack routed those who first met him, unprepared as they were for battle; and, having taken them captive, elated at the unexpected success he advanced further, expecting to overpower all the rest.
ב׳
2[251] But they, not a whit daunted by the defeat of the vanguard, but infused with courage greater even than before, and eager to supply by their zealousness the deficiency caused by the capture of their comrades, worked upon each other not to be faint-hearted. “Let us be up and doing,” they cried. “We are are now setting foot in the country. Let us shew ourselves undismayed and possessed of the security which courage gives. The end is often determined by the beginning. Here, at the entrance of the land, let us strike terror into the inhabitants, and feel that ours is the wealth of their cities, theirs the lack of necessities which we bring with us from the desert and have given them in exchange.”
ג׳
3[252] While they thus exhorted each other, they vowed to devote to God the cities of the king and the citizens in each as firstfruits of the land, and God, assenting to their prayers, and inspiring courage into the Hebrews, caused the army of the enemy to fall into their hands.
ד׳
4[253] Having thus captured them by the might of their assault, in fulfilment of their vows of thank-offering, they took none of the spoil for themselves, but dedicated the cities, men and treasures alike, and marked the fact by naming the whole kingdom “Devoted.”
ה׳
5[254] For, just as every pious person gives firstfruits of the year’s produce, whatever he reaps from his own possessions, so too the whole nation set apart the kingdom which they took at the outset, and thus gave a great slice of the great country into which they were migrating as the firstfruits of their settlement. For they judged it irreligious to distribute the land until they had made a firstfruit offering of the land and the cities.