על הגירת אברהם ו׳On the Migration of Abraham 6
א׳
1[26] And what is there to wonder at in his urging the mind, that had been brought under the control of irrational passion, not to give in, nor to be swept down by the violence of that passion’s current, but to resist with all its might, and, should it fail, even to run away? For flight remains as an alternative way of reaching safety for those who are not able to repel the danger. See how Moses deals with one who was by nature a sturdy fighter and had never become the slave of passions, but was always engaged in the conflict with each one of them? Even him he forbids to keep up his wrestlings to the end, lest one day, by perpetually meeting them, he should contract from them a pernicious taint: for many before now have proved imitators of an opponent’s vice, as others on the other hand have imitated his virtue.
ב׳
2[27] For this reason a Divine intimation was vouchsafed to him to this effect: “Turn back to the land of thy father and thy kindred, and I will be with thee” (Gen. 31:3); as much as to say “Thou hast proved thyself a perfect athlete, and been awarded prizes and crowns with Virtue presiding and holding forth to thee the meed of victory: but now it is time for thee to have done with strife, lest thou be ever toiling, and have no power to reap the fruits of thy toil.
ג׳
3[28] This thou wilt never find while thou remainest where thou art, dwelling still with the objects of sense-perception, and spending thy days surrounded by bodily existence in its varied aspects, whose head and chief is Laban, bearing a name meaning variety of character. Nay, thou must change thine abode and betake thee to thy father’s land, the land of the Word that is holy and in some sense father of those who submit to training: and that land is Wisdom, abode most choice of virtue-loving souls.
ד׳
4[29] In this country there awaiteth thee the nature which is its own pupil, its own teacher, that needs not to be fed on milk as children are fed, that has been stayed by a Divine oracle from going down into Egypt (Gen. 26:2) and from meeting with the ensnaring pleasures of the flesh. That nature is entitled Isaac.
ה׳
5[30] When thou hast entered upon his inheritance, thou canst not but lay aside thy toil; for the perpetual abundance of good things ever ready to the hand gives freedom from toil. And the fountain from which the good things are poured forth is the companionship of the bountiful God. He shews this to be so when to set His seal upon the flow of His kindnesses, He says “I will be with thee.”