על חיי משה, ספר ב ל״זOn the Life of Moses, Book II 37
א׳
1[196] And, lo, this half-bred person, having a quarrel with someone of the nation that has vision and knowledge, losing in his anger all control over himself, and also urged by fondness for Egyptian atheism, extended his impiety from earth to heaven, and with his soul and tongue and all the organism of speech alike accursed, foul, abominable, in the superabundance of his manifold wickedness cursed Him, Whom even to bless is a privilege not permitted to all but only to the best, even those who have received full and complete purification.
ב׳
2[197] Whereupon Moses, astonished at his madness and the superabundance of his audacity, though the spirit of noble indignation was strong within him and he would fain have cut him off with his own hand, feared lest he might exact too light a penalty; for to devise an adequate punishment for such impiety was beyond human powers.
ג׳
3[198] Refusal to reverence God implies refusal to honour parents and country and benefactors. And, if so, what depths of depravity remain for him to reach who besides refusing reverence dares also to revile Him? And yet even reviling is a lesser sin compared with cursing. But, when an idle tongue and an unbridled mouth put themselves at the service of lawless follies, some monstrous violation of the moral law is sure to be committed.
ד׳
4[199] Answer me, thou man, Does anyone curse God? Then what other god does he call on to make good the curse, or is it clear that he invokes the help of God against Himself? Avaunt such profane and unholy thoughts! Well may the unhappy soul purge itself, which through the ministry of that purblind sense, the ears, has been outraged by listening to such words.
ה׳
5[200] And was not the tongue of him who uttered such a blasphemy paralysed? and the ears of him who was to hear it blocked? Surely they would have been, were it not otherwise provided by justice, who holds that over nothing which is extremely good or exceedingly bad should a veil be thrown, but would have them submitted to the clearest test of their goodness or badness, that it may award approval to the one and punishment to the other.
ו׳
6[201] Moses, therefore, ordered the man to be haled to prison and put in chains, and implored God, to Whose mercy he appealed, pleading the enforcement of the senses by which we see what by rights we should not see and hear what we should not hear, to shew what should be done to the author of this impious and unholy crime, so monstrous and unheard-of.
ז׳
7[202] God commanded that he should be stoned, holding, I suppose, that stoning was the fitting punishment for a man of a hard and stony soul, and also desiring that the work of vengeance should be shared by all the people, who, as He knew, were deeply indignant and desired the death of the offender. And execution by missiles appeared to be the only mode in which so many thousands could take part.
ח׳
8[203] When this impious malefactor had paid the penalty, a new ordinance was drawn up. Previous to this, no such enactment would have seemed to be required. But unexpected disorders demand new laws as a check to offences. And so on this occasion the following law was promulgated: Whoever curses god, let him bear the guilt of his sin, but he that nameth the name of the Lord let him die.
ט׳
9[204] Well hast thou said, thou wisest of men, who alone hast drunk deep of the untempered wine of wisdom. Thou hast held the naming to be worse than the cursing, for thou couldst not be treating lightly one guilty of the gravest impiety and ranking him with the milder offenders while thou didst decree the extreme penalty of death to one who was judged to have committed the lesser iniquity.