על צאצאי קין כ״הOn the Posterity of Cain and his Exile 25
א׳
1[89] These boundaries were fixed not by the creation to which we belong, but on principles which are divine and are older than we and all that belongs to earth. This has been made clear by the Law, where it solemnly enjoins upon each one of us not to adulterate the coinage of virtue, using these words: “thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s boundaries, which thy fathers set up” (Deut. 19:14), and again in other words: “Ask thy father and he will show thee; thine elders and they will tell thee. When the Most High distributed nations, when He dispersed the sons of Adam, He set boundaries of nations according to the number of the angels of God, and Jacob His people became the Lord’s portion, Israel became the lot of His inheritance” (Deut. 32:7–9).
ב׳
2[90] If, then, I inquire of the father who begat me and brought me up, or of those of the same age with him but my elders, in what way God distributed or dispersed or settled the nations, will they answer me with steady certainty, as though they had followed that process of distribution step by step? Assuredly not. They will say “We too when we were young made diligent inquiry from our parents and persons still older than they, and we ascertained nothing definite; for they had nothing to teach us, seeing that they in their time had applied to others, whom they regarded as knowing, to enlighten their ignorance.”