על הגירת אברהם כ׳On the Migration of Abraham 20
א׳
1[109] These are the prizes which He bestows upon him who is to become wise. Let us see next those which He accords to others too for the wise man’s sake. “I will bless,” He says, “those that bless thee, and those that curse thee I will curse” (Gen. 12:3).
ב׳
2[110] That these promises as well as the others are made to shew honour to the righteous man is clear to everybody, but they are set forth not on that account only, but because they so admirably fit in with and follow the truth of facts, for encomiums are due to him who praises the good man and blame again to him who blames him. Praise and blame are not accredited so much by the ability of speakers and authors, as by the truth of facts; so that we do not feel that either term is applicable to the words of those who give falsehood any place in either.
ג׳
3[111] Do you not see the toadies who by day and night batter to pieces and wear out the ears of those on whom they fawn, not content with just assenting to everything they say, but spinning out long speeches and declaiming and many a time uttering prayers with their voice, but never ceasing to curse with their heart? What then would a man of good sense say?
ד׳
4[112] Would he not say that those who talk in this way talk as though they were enemies rather than friends, and blame rather than praise, even though they compose and recite whole oratorios of panegyric to charm them?
ה׳
5[113] Accordingly, that empty one, Balaam, though he sang loftiest hymns to God, among which is that most Divine of canticles “God is not as man” (Num. 23:19), and poured out a thousand eulogies on him whose eyes were open, even Israel, has been adjudged impious and accursed even by the wise lawgiver, and held to be an utterer not of blessings but of curses.
ו׳
6[114] For Moses says that as the hired confederate of Israel’s enemies he became an evil prophet of evil things, nursing in his soul direst curses on the race beloved of God, but forced with mouth and tongue to give prophetic utterance to most amazing benedictory prayers: for the words that were spoken were noble words, whose utterance was prompted by God the Lover of Virtue, but the intentions, in all their vileness, were the offspring of a mind that looked on virtue with loathing.
ז׳
7[115] Evidence of this is afforded by the oracles relating to the matter; for it says “God did not give Balaam leave to curse thee, but turned his curses into blessing” (Deut. 23:5), though indeed every word he uttered was charged with fulness of benediction. But He Who looks upon what is stored up in the soul, saw, with the Eye that alone has power to discern them, the things that are out of sight of created beings, and on the ground of these passed the sentence of condemnation, being at once an absolutely true Witness, and an incorruptible Judge.
ח׳
8For on the same principle praise is due to the converse of this, namely, when one seems to revile and accuse with the voice, and is in intent conveying blessing and benediction.
ט׳
9[116] This is obviously the custom of proctors, of home tutors, schoolmasters, parents, seniors, magistrates, laws: all of these, by reproaches, and sometimes by punishments, effect improvement in the souls of those whom they are educating. And not one of them is an enemy to a single person, but all are friends of them all: and the business of friends inspired by genuine and unfeigned goodwill is to use plain language without any spite whatever.
י׳
10[117] Let no treatment, then, that is marked by prayers and blessings on the one hand, or by abusing and cursing on the other hand, be referred to the way it finds vent in speech, but rather to the intention; for from this, as from a spring, is supplied the means of testing each kind of spoken words.