On the Meeting for the sake of seeking Instruction (86-90)

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God; ye shall not behave according

Therefore, real true life, above everything else, consists in the judgments and commandments of God, so that the customs and practises of the impious must be death: but there are some races which take no note of passions and of wickednesses, from whom the multitudes of impious persons and wickedness are sprung.

Therefore, ten years after our departure to settle in the land of the Canaanites let us marry Hagar, since from the first moment that we become rational beings, we seek for ignorance and a deficiency of knowledge which is pernicious in its own nature; but at a subsequent period, and at a perfect number, namely, the legal number of the decade, we come to feel a desire for that instruction which is able to benefit us.

But the sons of the musicians have accurately and carefully investigated the question respecting the decade; and the most sacred Moses has composed a hymn, with no slight degree of skill, attributing the most excellent things to this number of the decade, such as prayers, first-fruits, the continual and unceasing offerings of the priests, the observance of the passover, the atonement, [*] the remission of debts, and the return to the ancient allotments of property at the end of every fifty years; [*] the preparation and furnishing of the indissoluble tabernacle, [*] and ten thousand other things which it would take a long time to enumerate. However, we must not pass over the most important points.

In the first place he represents Noah to us (and this man is the first who is specially entitled just, in the holy scriptures), as the tenth in succession from him who was formed out of the earth, not intending by this statement to indicate the number [*] [*] [*] [*]