against

Now I have much grief, my children, because of your lewdness and witchcrafts, and idolatries which ye shall practise against the kingdom, following them that have familiar spirits, diviners, and demons of error.

And I was not a busybody in my doings, nor envious and malicious against my neighbour.

And the spirits of deceit have no power against him, for he looketh not on the beauty of women, lest he should pollute his mind with corruption.

Nor yet do I remember that I have done any iniquity, except the sin of ignorance which I committed against Joseph; for I covenanted with my brethren not to tell my father what had been done.

For Simeon and Gad came against Joseph to kill him, and he said unto them with tears: Pity me, my brethren, have mercy upon the bowels of Jacob our father: lay not upon me your hands to shed innocent blood, for I have not sinned against you.

For Simeon and Gad came against Joseph to kill him, and he said unto them with tears: Pity me, my brethren, have mercy upon the bowels of Jacob our father: lay not upon me your hands to shed innocent blood, for I have not sinned against you.

And when Joseph saw me weeping with him, and them coming against him to slay him, he fled behind me, beseeching them.

And the brethren of Joseph wished not that their brother should live, and the Lord loosed from them the sandal which they wore against Joseph their brother.

And when we went down into Egypt, Joseph bore no malice against us.

To whom taking heed, do ye also, my children, approve yourselves without malice, and love one another; and do not set down in account, each one of you, evil against his brother.

And He setteth not down in account evil against the sons of men, because they are flesh, and are deceived through their own wicked deeds.

Therefore, when any one. speaketh against you, be not ye moved to anger, and if any man praiseth you as holy men, be not uplifted: be not moved either to delight or to disgust.

I know that in the last days ye shall depart from the Lord, and ye shall provoke Levi unto anger, and fight against Judah; but ye shall not prevail against them, for an angel of the Lord shall guide them both; for by them shall Israel stand.

I know that in the last days ye shall depart from the Lord, and ye shall provoke Levi unto anger, and fight against Judah; but ye shall not prevail against them, for an angel of the Lord shall guide them both; for by them shall Israel stand.

And there shall arise unto you from the tribe of Judah and of Levi the salvation of the Lord; and he shall make war against Beliar.

Draw near unto God and unto the angel that intercedeth for you, for he is a mediator between God and man, and for the peace of Israel he shall stand up against the kingdom of the enemy.

Accordingly I guarded at night the flock; and whenever the lion came, or the wolf, or any wild beast against the fold, I pursued it, and overtaking it I seized its foot with my hand and hurled it about a stone's throw, and so killed it.

And Joseph told our father that the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah were slaying the best of the flock and eating them against the judgement of Reuben and Judah.

Beware, therefore, my children of hatred, for it worketh lawlessness even against the Lord Himself.

For it will not hear the words of His commandments concerning the loving of one's--neighbour, and it sinneth against God.

And if it be a servant it stirreth him up against his master, and with every affliction it deviseth against him, if possibly he can be put to death.

And if it be a servant it stirreth him up against his master, and with every affliction it deviseth against him, if possibly he can be put to death.

For hatred worketh with envy also against them that prosper: so long as it heareth of or seeth their success it always languisheth.

Hatred, therefore, is evil, for it constantly mateth with lying, speaking against the truth; and it maketh small things to be great, and causeth the light to be darkness, and calleth the sweet bitter, and teacheth slander, and kindleth wrath, and stirreth up war, and violence and all covetousness; it filleth the heart with evils and devilish poison.

He speaketh not against a holy man, because the fear of God overcometh hatred.

Since, therefore, my liver was set mercilessly against Joseph, in my liver too I suffered mercilessly, and was judged for eleven months, for so long a time as I had been angry against Joseph.

Since, therefore, my liver was set mercilessly against Joseph, in my liver too I suffered mercilessly, and was judged for eleven months, for so long a time as I had been angry against Joseph.

Love ye one another from the heart; and if a man sin against thee, speak peaceably to him, and in thy soul hold not guile; and if he repent and confess, forgive him.

Let not another man hear thy secrets when engaged in legal strife, lest he come to hate thee and become thy enemy, and commit a great sin against thee; for ofttimes he addresseth thee guilefully or busieth himself about thee with wicked intent.

Therefore all things are by twos, one over against the other.

He who defraudeth his neighbour provoketh God, and sweareth falsely against the Most High, and yet pitieth the poor: the Lord who commanded the law he setteth at nought and provoketh, and yet he refresheth the poor.

Ye see, my children, how that there are two in all things, one against the other, and the one is hidden by the other: in wealth is hidden covetousness, in conviviality drunkenness, in laughter grief, in wedlock profligacy.

For they that are double-faced are guilty of a twofold sin; for they both do the evil thing and they have pleasure in them that do it, following the example of the spirits of deceit, and striving against mankind.

Become not, my children, as Sodom, which sinned against the angels of the Lord, and perished for ever.

Bitterly spoken against by the Egyptians, and He delivered me;

And I struggled against a shameless woman, urging me to transgress with her; but the God of Israel my father delivered me from the burning flame.

And I did not raise myself against them with evil intent, but I honoured my brethren; and out of respect for them, even when I was being sold, I refrained from telling the Ishmaelites that I was a son of Jacob, a great man and a mighty.

And I saw that from Judah was born a virgin wearing a linen garment, and from her, was born a lamb, without spot; and on his left hand there was as it were a lion; and all the beasts rushed against him, and the lamb overcame them, and destroyed them and trod them under foot.

And Isaiah said unto him: 'The counsel of Sammael against Manasseh is consummated: nought will avail thee.'

And Balchîrâ accused Isaiah and the prophets who were with him, saying: 'Isaiah and those who are with him prophesy against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah that they shall be laid waste and (against the children of Judah and) Benjamin also that they shall go into captivity, and also against thee, O lord the king, that thou shalt go (bound) with hooks and iron chains':

And Balchîrâ accused Isaiah and the prophets who were with him, saying: 'Isaiah and those who are with him prophesy against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah that they shall be laid waste and (against the children of Judah and) Benjamin also that they shall go into captivity, and also against thee, O lord the king, that thou shalt go (bound) with hooks and iron chains':

And Balchîrâ accused Isaiah and the prophets who were with him, saying: 'Isaiah and those who are with him prophesy against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah that they shall be laid waste and (against the children of Judah and) Benjamin also that they shall go into captivity, and also against thee, O lord the king, that thou shalt go (bound) with hooks and iron chains':

And Balchîrâ accused Isaiah and the prophets who were with him, saying: 'Isaiah and those who are with him prophesy against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah that they shall be laid waste and (against the children of Judah and) Benjamin also that they shall go into captivity, and also against thee, O lord the king, that thou shalt go (bound) with hooks and iron chains':

But they prophesy falsely against Israel and Judah.

Know, therefore, O king, that he is lying. And Jerusalem also he hath called Sodom, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem he hath declared to be the people of Gomorrah. And he brought many accusations against Isaiah and the prophets before Manasseh.

For Beliar was in great wrath against Isaiah by reason of the vision, and because of the exposure wherewith he had exposed Sammael, and because through him the going forth of the Beloved from the seventh heaven had been made known, and His transformation and His descent and the likeness into which He should be transformed (that is) the likeness of man, and the persecution wherewith He should be persecuted, and the tortures wherewith the children of Israel should torture Him, and the coming of His twelve disciples, and the teaching, and that He should before the Sabbath be crucified upon the tree, and should be crucified together with wicked men, and that He should be buried in the sepulchre,

This Beliar did to Isaiah through Balchîrâ and Manasseh; for Sammael was very wrathful against Isaiah from the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, on account of the things which he had seen regarding the Beloved,

And the god of that world will stretch forth his hand against the Son, and they will crucify Him on a tree, and will slay Him not knowing who He is.

And after this the adversary envied Him and roused the children of Israel against Him, not knowing who He was, and they delivered Him to the king, and crucified Him, and He descended to the angel (of Sheol).

O my son! restrain thy son from wickedness, and teach him manners before he rebels against thee and brings thee into contempt amongst the people and thou hang thy head in the streets and the assemblies and thou be punished for the evil of his wicked deeds.

And when thou shalt see me there coming towards thee, haste and make the army move against me as an enemy who would fight with me, for I have with me the ambassadors of Pharaoh king of Egypt, that they may see the strength of our army and may fear us, for they are our enemies and they hate us.'

And when Haiqar saw that the king was there, he approached and signalled to the army to move as in war and to fight in array against the king as it had been found in the letter, he not knowing what a pit Nadan had digged for him.

(And even before this time large numbers of Jews had come into Egypt with the Persian, and in an earlier period still others had been sent to Egypt to help Psammetichus in his campaign against the king of the Ethiopians. But these were nothing like so numerous as the captives whom Ptolemy the son of Lagus transported.)

The decree of the king ran as follows: 'All who served in the army of our father in the campaign against Syria and Phoenicia and in the attack upon the country of the Jews and became possessed of Jewish captives and brought them back to the city of Alexandria and the land of Egypt or sold them to others--and in the same way any captives who were in our land before that time or were brought hither afterwards--all who possess such captives are required to set them at liberty at once, receiving twenty drachmae per head as ransom money.

We think that it was against our father's will and against all propriety that they should have been made captives and that the devastation of their land and the transportation of the Jews to Egypt was an act of military wantonness.

We think that it was against our father's will and against all propriety that they should have been made captives and that the devastation of their land and the transportation of the Jews to Egypt was an act of military wantonness.

And in the same way he gave the judges written instructions, that if it was necessary to issue a summons against any one who lived in the country, the case must be settled within five days.

Originally the country contained not less than 60 million acres--though afterwards the neighbouring peoples made incursions against it--and 600,000 men were settled upon it in farms of a hundred acres each.

Verily, when the Law orders us not to covet, it should, I think, confirm strongly the argument that the Reason is capable of controlling covetous desires, even as it does the passions that militate against justice.

Yea, Moses when he was angered against Dathan and Abiram did not give free course to his wrath, but governed his anger by his Reason.

None of you is able to extirpate anger from the soul, but it is possible for the Reason to come to his aid against anger.

None of you can extirpate a malevolent disposition, but Reason can be his powerful ally against being swayed by malevolence.

For when David had fought the live-long day against the Philistines, and by the help of our country's warriors had slain many of them, he came at eventide, all fordone with sweat and toil, to the royal tent, around which was encamped the whole army of our ancestors.

Then when his body-guard murmured against the craving of the king, two youths, mighty warriors, ashamed that their king should lack his desire, put on all their armour, and took a water-vessel, and scaled the enemy's ramparts; and stealing undetected past the guards at the gate, they searched through all the enemy's camp.

At a time when our fathers enjoyed great peace through the due observance of the Law, and were in happy case, so that Seleucus Nicanor, the king of Asia, sanctioned the tax for the temple-service, and recognized our polity, precisely then, certain men, acting factiously against the general concord, involved us in many and various calamities.

Onias, a man of the highest character, being then high priest and having the office for his life, a certain Simon raised a faction against him, but since despite every kind of slander he failed to injure him on account of the people, he fled abroad with intent to betray his country.

Wherefore the divine justice was kindled to anger and brought Antiochus himself as an enemy against us.

For when. be was carrying on war with Ptolemy in Egypt and heard that the people of Jerusalem had rejoiced exceedingly over a report of his death, he immediately marched back against them.

Then binding his arms on either side they scourged him, a herald standing and shouting out over against him, 'Obey the orders of the king!'

And with these words the holy man nobly yielded up his spirit under the torture I and for the sake of the Law held out by his Reason even against the torments unto death.

For as our father Aaron, armed with the censer, ran through the massed congregation against the fiery angel and overcame him, so the son of Aaron, Eleazar, being consumed by the melting heat of the fire, remained unshaken in his Reason.

Let us not strive against necessity nor with vain confidence invite our torture.

And thus in grievous strait for breath and anguish of body he exclaimed, 'Glorious, O tyrant, glorious against thy will are the boons that thou bestowest on me, enabling me to show my fidelity to the Law through yet more honourable tortures.'

And what need have we of examples of the love of offspring among irrational animals, when even the bees, about the season of the making of the comb, fend off intruders, and stab with their sting, as with a sword, those who approach their brood, and do battle against them even to the death?

Remember that for the sake of God ye have come into the world, and have enjoyed life, and that therefore ye owe it to God to endure all pain for his sake; for whom also our father Abraham made haste to sacrifice his son Isaac, the ancestor of our nation; and Isaac, seeing his father's hand lifting the knife against him, did not shrink.

And ye also, having the same faith unto God, be not troubled; for it were against Reason that ye, knowing righteousness, should not withstand the pains.'

For when he failed utterly to constrain the people of Jerusalem to live like Gentiles and abandon the customs of our fathers, he thereupon left Jerusalem and marched away against the Persians.

For thus it was from the beginning and will be to the end, that nothing should be His adversary, and nothing should stand up against Him.

As the impulse of anger against evil, so is the impulse of joy over what is lovely, and brings in of its fruits without restraint:

Who then shall rise up against my handiwork, or who is there that is not subject to them?

Thou hast restrained those that rise up against me,

I did not perish, though they devised it against me.

Moreover, I, Baruch, say this against you, Babylon: 'If you had prospered, And Zion had dwelt in her glory, Yet the grief to us had been great That you should be equal to Zion.

But I will say this as I think. And I will speak against you, O land, which art prospering.

For assuredly in its own season shall the (divine) wrath awake against you. Which now in long-suffering is held in as it were by reins.

And He answered and said unto me: 'Wherefore at that time he appointed for them a covenant and said: "Behold I have placed before you life and death," And he called heaven and earth to witness against them.

And again hearken: though each one were prospered all that time-all the time from the day on which death was decreed against those who transgress-and in his end was destroyed, in vain would have been everything.

Because when Adam sinned and death was decreed against those who should be born, then the multitude of those who should be born was numbered, and for that number a place was prepared where the living might dwell and the dead might be guarded.

"Look to this people till I go and make ready the rest of the brethren in Babylon against whom has gone forth the sentence that they should be led into captivity"?

And lo! over against it arose a vine, and from under it there went forth a fountain peacefully.

And it shall come to pass in those days that all the inhabitants of the earth shall be moved one against another, because they know not that My judgment has drawn nigh.

And I besought the Mighty One, and said: 'You alone, O Lord, know of aforetime the deep things of the world, And the things which befall in their times You bring about by Your word, And against the works of the inhabitants of the earth you do hasten the beginnings of the times, And the end of the seasons you alone know.

But also against the two tribes and a half went forth a decree that they should also be led away captive, as you have now seen.

He has decreed against you that you should be carried away captive-for what you have suffered is disproportioned to what you have done-in order that, at the last times, you may be found worthy of your fathers.

Now, my brethren, learn first what befell Zion: how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against us.

For we have sinned against Him who made us, and we have not kept the commandments which he commanded us, yet he hath not chastened us as we deserved.

Remember that formerly Moses assuredly called heaven and earth to witness against you and said: 'If you transgress the law you shall be dispersed, but if you keep it you shall be kept.'

Sing a new song, Unto God who is worthy to be praised. Sing and be wakeful against His awaking, For good is a psalm (sung) to God from a glad heart.

And the nations shall not prevail against us. For Thou art our shield,

He decreed () war against Jerusalem, and against her land.