על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר ג ב׳On the Special Laws, Book III 2
א׳
1[7] Since out of the ten oracles which God gave forth Himself without a spokesman or interpreter, we have spoken of five, namely those graven on the first table, and also of all the particular laws which had reference to these, and our present duty is to couple with them those of the second table as well as we can, I will again endeavour to fit the special laws into each of the heads.
ב׳
2[8] The first commandment in the second table is “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” It comes first, I think, because pleasure is a mighty force felt throughout the whole inhabited world, no part of which has escaped its domination, neither the denizens of land nor of sea nor of the air, for in all three elements beasts, fowls and fishes all alike treat her with profound respect and deference and submit to her orders, look to her every glance or nod, accept contentedly even the caprices of her arrogance and almost anticipate her commands, so promptly and instantaneously do they hasten to render their services.
ג׳
3[9] Now even natural pleasure is often greatly to blame when the craving for it is immoderate and insatiable, as for instance when it takes the form of voracious gluttony, even though none of the food taken is of the forbidden kind, or again the passionate desire for women shewn by those who in their craze for sexual intercourse behave unchastely, not with the wives of others, but with their own.
ד׳
4[10] But the blame in most of these cases rests less with the soul than with the body, which contains a great amount both of fire and of moisture; the fire as it consumes the material set before it quickly demands a second supply; the moisture is sluiced in a stream through the genital organs, and creates in them irritations, itchings and titillations without ceasing.
ה׳
5[11] It is not so with men who are mad to possess the wives of others, sometimes those of their relations and friends, who live to work havoc among their neighbours, who go about to bastardize wholesale widespread family connexions, to turn their prayers for married happiness into a curse and render their hopes of offspring fruitless. Here it is the soul which is incurably diseased. Such persons must be punished with death as the common enemies of the whole human race, that they may not live to ruin more houses with immunity and be the tutors of others who make it their business to emulate the wickedness of their ways.