in the first place he will show piety toward God and then that he will
observe justice toward men, and that he will do no harm to any one either
voluntarily or at the command of others, and that he will always hate the
wicked, and help the righteous, and that he will show fidelity to all men
and especially to those in authority, that he will be a lover of truth and
denounce those who tell lies, and that he will keep his hands clean from
theft, and his soul from unlawful gain. Moreover he swears to communicate
their doctrines to no one otherwise than he received them himself, and
that he will abstain from robbery, and that he will faithfully preserve
the books of their sect and the names of the angels.

[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, II, 8:8a, 9a-c]
Those who are caught in any heinous sins they cast out of their society;
and he who is thus expelled often dies miserably. And in the judgments
they pronounce they are most exacting and just, nor do they pass sentence
by the votes of a court having less than one hundred members, and what is
determined by them is unalterable. What they most of all honor, after God
himself, is the name of their legislator [Moses], whom, if any one
blasphemes, he is punished by death. They also think it a good thing to
obey their elders and the majority. They are stricter than any others of
the Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh day, for they not
only prepare their food the day before, that they may not be obliged to
kindle a fire on that day, but they will not venture to move any vessel
out of its place.

[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, II, 8:10b, c, 11b]
They are also long-lived, insomuch that most of them live over a hundred
years because of the simplicity of their diet and as a result of their
regular course of life. They despise the miseries of life and are above
pain because of their noble thoughts. And as for death, if it come with