[105] Again he extends the influence which humanity naturally exerts and carries it farther afield in his instructions about settlers. He would have those who have immigrated under stress of circumstances, pay some honour to the people which has accepted them, in every possible way if the admission is accompanied by kind and hospitable treatment, in a more moderate degree if it is confined to mere acceptance. For the grant of a harbour in an alien state, or rather the mere permission to set foot on foreign soil is in itself a sufficient boon for those who are unable to dwell in their own.
[106] Mere fairness itself demands thus much, but he goes beyond its limits, when he considers that no malice should be borne to those whose hospitality to strangers is followed by maltreatment, for nominally they are humane though their actions are not. Thus he says without reservation, “Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian because thou wast a sojourner in Egypt”;
[107] and yet what maltreatment did the Egyptians spare to inflict on the nation, ever combining old and new outrages in their ingenious devices for wreaking their cruelty? Still since originally they received the nation and did not close their cities against them, nor make their country inaccessible to the newcomers, they should, he says, in recognition of this acceptance be admitted as a privilege to terms of amity.
[108] And if any of them should wish to pass over into the Jewish community, they must not be spurned with an unconditional refusal as children of enemies, but be so far favoured that the third generation is invited to the congregation and made partakers in the divine revelations, to which also the native born, whose lineage is beyond reproach, are rightfully admitted.