11. But Zimri arose up after him, and said, "Yes, indeed, Moses, thou
art at liberty to make use of such laws as thou art so fond of, and
hast, by accustoming thyself to them, made them firm; otherwise, if
things had not been thus, thou hadst often been punished before now, and
hadst known that the Hebrews are not easily put upon; but thou shalt not
have me one of thy followers in thy tyrannical commands, for thou dost
nothing else hitherto, but, under pretense of laws, and of God, wickedly
impose on us slavery, and gain dominion to thyself, while thou deprivest
us of the sweetness of life, which consists in acting according to our
own wills, and is the right of free-men, and of those that have no lord
over them. Nay, indeed, this man is harder upon the Hebrews then were
the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to punish, according to his
laws, every one's acting what is most agreeable to himself; but thou
thyself better deservest to suffer punishment, who presumest to abolish
what every one acknowledges to be what is good for him, and aimest to
make thy single opinion to have more force than that of all the rest;
and what I now do, and think to be right, I shall not hereafter deny to
be according to my own sentiments. I have married, as thou sayest
rightly, a strange woman, and thou hearest what I do from myself as from
one that is free, for truly I did not intend to conceal myself. I also
own that I sacrificed to those gods to whom you do not think it fit to
sacrifice; and I think it right to come at truth by inquiring of many
people, and not like one that lives under tyranny, to suffer the whole
hope of my life to depend upon one man; nor shall any one find cause to
rejoice who declares himself to have more authority over my actions than
myself."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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