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who visited them in their affliction, who performed signs by hand and by rod, who struck the Egyptians with ten plagues, who divided the Red Sea into divisions of waters, who led them through the midst of the water like a horse on a plain, who drowned their enemies and those who plotted against them, who sweetened the bitter spring at Marah, who brought down water from the steep rock for their satisfaction, who shaded them with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire from the immeasurable heat, and illuminated and guided those who did not know where they were going, who gave them manna from heaven and provided them with meat, a great flock of quail, from the sea, who gave them the law on the mountain, whose voice they were deemed worthy to hear; this one they denied, saying to Aaron: “Make for us gods who will go before us.” And they made a molten calf and sacrificed to the idol; wherefore God, being angered, since He was treated ungratefully by them, bound them with unbreakable bonds, with the pressure of a burden and the weight of a collar. And no longer did He say, 'But if you do,' but 'Make' an altar and sacrifice continually, for you are forgetful and ungrateful; therefore offer whole burnt offerings constantly, that you may be reminded of me. For since you have misused your freedom, I impose necessity upon you henceforth, and I keep you from such foods and distinguish for you differences between clean and unclean animals, although every animal is good since it was made by me. And I command for you such separations, purifications, continual washings, sprinklings, such purities, various rests. And for each of these, if you disobey, I appoint a punishment as for a disobedient servant, so that, being hard pressed and constrained by the collar, you may depart from the polytheistic error, and having put aside 'These are your gods, O Israel,' you may be reminded of 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord,' and you may run back to that law established by me in nature for all men: that there is only one God in heaven and on earth, and to love him with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your mind, and besides him not to fear another, nor to take the name of other gods upon your mind nor to utter it with your tongue through your mouth. For because of their hardness of heart He bound them, so that through sacrificing and resting and purifying themselves and observing such things they might come to the knowledge of the God who commanded these things to them. But of you who have believed in the one God,

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ἐπισκεψάμενον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ θλίψει αὐτῶν, τὸν τὰ σημεῖα ἐπὶ χειρὸς καὶ ῥάβδου ποιησάμενον, τὸν τοὺς Aἰγυπτίους δεκαπλήγῳ πατάξαντα, τὸν τὴν ἐρυθρὰν διελόντα θάλασσαν εἰς διαιρέσεις ὑδάτων, τὸν διαγαγόντα αὐτοὺς ἐν μέσῳ ὕδατος ὡς ἵππον ἐν πεδίῳ, τὸν τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπιβούλους βυθίσαντα, τὸν εἰς Μερρὰν τὴν πικρὰν πηγὴν γλυκάναντα, τὸν ἐκ πέτρας ἀκροτόμου καταγαγόντα ὕδωρ εἰς πλησμονὴν αὐτοῖς, τὸν στύλῳ νεφέλης καὶ στύλῳ πυρὸς σκιάζοντα αὐτοῖς διὰ θάλπος ἄμετρον καὶ φωτίζοντα καὶ ὁδηγοῦντα τοὺς οὐκ εἰδότας ὅπου πορευθῶσιν, τὸν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ μαννοδοτήσαντα αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐκ θαλάσσης κρεωδο τήσαντα ὀρτυγομήτραν, τὸν ἐν τῷ ὄρει νομοθετήσαντα αὐτοῖς, οὗ τῆς φωνῆς ἠξιώθησαν ἐπακοῦσαι· τοῦτον ἀπηρνήσαντο εἰπόντες τῷ Ἀαρών· «Ποίησον ἡμῖν θεούς, οἳ προπορεύσονται ἡμῶν.» Καὶ ἐμοσχοποίησαν χωνευτὸν καὶ ἔθυσαν τῷ εἰδώλῳ· διὸ ὀργισθεὶς ὁ Θεός, ἅτε ἀχαριστη θεὶς ὑπ' αὐτῶν, ἔδησεν αὐτοὺς δεσμοῖς ἀλύτοις, στιβώσει φορτισμοῦ καὶ βαρύτητι κλοιοῦ. Καὶ οὐκέτι εἶπεν· 'Ἐὰν δὲ ποιῇς', ἀλλά· 'Ποίησον' θυσιαστήριον καὶ θῦε διηνεκῶς, ἐπιλήσμων γὰρ τυγχάνεις καὶ ἀχάριστος· ὁλοκαύτει οὖν συνεχῶς, ἵν' ὑπομιμνήσκῃ μου. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ κακῶς ἀπεχρήσω, ἀνάγκην ἐπιτίθημί σοι λοιπόν, καὶ βρωμάτων ἀφιστῶ τοιῶνδε καὶ ζóων σοι διαφορὰς καθαρῶν καὶ ἀκαθάρτων διαστέλλομαι, καίτοι παντὸς ζóου καλοῦ τυγχάνοντος ἅτε ὑπ' ἐμοῦ γενο μένου. Καὶ ἀφορισμοὺς τοιούσδε σοι προστάσσω, καθα ρισμούς, συνεχῆ βαπτίσματα, ῥαντισμούς, ἁγνείας τοιάσδε, ἀργίας διαφόρους. Καὶ τούτων ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ, ἐὰν παρα κούσῃς, τιμωρίαν ὁρίζω ὡς οἰκέτῃ ἀπειθεῖ, ὅπως πιεζόμενος καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ κλοιοῦ ἀγχόμενος τῆς πολυθέου πλάνης ἐκστῇς, καὶ παρεὶς τὸ Ὀὗτοι οἱ θεοί σου, Ἰσραήλ' ὑπομνησθῇς τὸ 'Ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ, Κύριος, ὁ Θεός σου Κύριος εἷς ἐστιν', καὶ ἀναδράμῃς ἐπ' ἐκεῖνον τὸν νόμον τὸν ὑπ' ἐμοῦ τῇ φύσει καταβληθέντα πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις· ἕνα μόνον ὑπάρχειν Θεὸν ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς, καὶ τοῦτον ἀγαπᾶν ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας, καὶ πλὴν αὐτοῦ μὴ φοβεῖσθαι ἄλλον, μήτε ὄνομα θεῶν ἑτέρων ἐπὶ διανοίας λαμβάνειν μήτε προφέρειν γλώσσῃ διὰ στόματος. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τὴν σκληροκαρδίαν αὐτῶν ἐπέδησεν αὐτούς, ἵνα διὰ τοῦ θύειν καὶ ἀργεῖν καὶ ἁγνίζεσθαι καὶ τὰ τοιάδε παρατηρεῖσθαι εἰς ἔννοιαν ἔλθωσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ταῦτα διαταξαμένου αὐτοῖς. Ὑμῶν δὲ τῶν πιστευσάντων εἰς τὸν ἕνα Θεόν,