Chapter XXI.—The Law of the Sabbath-Day Explained. The Eight Days’ Procession Around Jericho. The Gathering of Sticks a Violation.

Similarly on other points also, you reproach Him with fickleness and instability for contradictions in His commandments, such as that He forbade work to be done on Sabbath-days, and yet at the siege of Jericho ordered the ark to be carried round the walls during eight days; in other words, of course, actually on a Sabbath. You do not, however, consider the law of the Sabbath: they are human works, not divine, which it prohibits.638    Ex. xx. 9, 10. For it says, “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” What work?  Of course your own. The conclusion is, that from the Sabbath-day He removes those works which He had before enjoined for the six days, that is, your own works; in other words, human works of daily life. Now, the carrying around of the ark is evidently not an ordinary daily duty, nor yet a human one; but a rare and a sacred work, and, as being then ordered by the direct precept of God, a divine one. And I might fully explain what this signified, were it not a tedious process to open out the forms639    Figuras. of all the Creator’s proofs, which you would, moreover, probably refuse to allow. It is more to the point, if you be confuted on plain matters640    De absolutis. by the simplicity of truth rather than curious reasoning. Thus, in the present instance, there is a clear distinction respecting the Sabbath’s prohibition of human labours, not divine ones. Accordingly, the man who went and gathered sticks on the Sabbath-day was punished with death. For it was his own work which he did; and this641    [He was not punished for gathering sticks, but for setting an example of contempt of the Divine Law.] the law forbade. They, however, who on the Sabbath carried the ark round Jericho, did it with impunity. For it was not their own work, but God’s, which they executed, and that too, from His express commandment.

CAPUT XXI.

Sic et in caeteris contrarietates praeceptorum ei exprobras, ut mobili et instabili; prohibentis sabbatis operari, et jubentis arcam circumferri per dies octo, id est, etiam sabbato, in expugnatione civitatis Hiericho. 0309C Nec sabbati enim inspicis legem, opera humana, non divina prohibentem. Siquidem, Sex, inquit (Exod. XX, 9, 10), diebus operare, et facies omnia opera tua, septima autem die sabbatiDomino Deo tuo; non facies in ea omne opus. Quod? Utique tuum . Consequens enim est, ut ea opera sabbato auferret, quae sex diebus supra induxerat: tua scilicet, id est, humana, et quotidiana. Arcam vero circumferre, neque quotidianum opus videri potest, neque humanum; sed et rarum, et sacrosanctum, et ex ipso tunc Dei praecepto utique divinum. Quod et ipse quid significaret edissererem, nisi longum esset figuras argumentorum omnium Creatoris expandere, quas forsitan nec admittis. Sed plus est, si 0310A de absolutis revincamini, simplicitate veritatis, non curiositate: sicut et nunc certa distinctio est sabbati, humana, non divina opera prohibentis. Ideoque qui sabbatis lignatum ierat, morti datus est: suum enim opus fecerat, lege interdictum. Qui vero arcam sabbatis circumtulerant, impune gesserunt: non suum enim opus, sed Dei , ex praecepto scilicet ipsius, administraverant.