[228] Moses, hearing this, recognized the reasonableness of their claim, and also the cogency of their excuse for absenting themselves from the sacrifice; and with these was mingled a feeling of sympathy. Yet he wavered in his judgement, and oscillated as on a balance: one scale was weighed down by pity and justice, while in the other lay as a counterpoise the law of the Paschal sacrifices in which both the first month and the fourteenth day were clearly appointed for the rite. So, vacillating between refusal and assent, he besought God to act as judge and to give an oracle declaring his decision.
[229] And God hearkened to him and vouchsafed an answer revealing His will, touching not only those for whom the prophet interceded but those of future generations who might find themselves in the same case. And, His grace abounding further, He included in the divine edict those who for other reasons might be unable to join the whole nation in a sacred service.
[230] It is right to state what the pronouncements thus given were. “Mourning for kinsfolk,” He said, “is an affliction which the family cannot avoid, but it does not count as an offence.
[231] While it is still running its appointed course, it should be banished from the sacred precincts which must be kept pure from all pollution, not only that which is voluntary but also that which is unintentionally incurred. But when its term is finished let not the mourners be denied an equal share in the sacred services, and thus the living be made an appendage to the dead. Let them form a second set to come on the second month and also on the fourteenth day, and sacrifice just as the first set, and observe a similar rule and method in dealing with the victims.
[232] The same permission also must be given to those who are prevented from joining the whole nation in worship not by mourning but by absence in a distant country. For settlers abroad and inhabitants of other regions are not wrongdoers who deserve to be deprived of equal privileges, particularly if the nation has grown so populous that a single country cannot contain it and has sent out colonies in all directions.”