Book V - Snyder Bible

198
these things also are worshipped by us? If any one of you
should pay to another the honor that is due to his father, from
whom he has received innumerable benefits, and should reverence
a stranger and foreigner as his father, should you not
think that he was undutiful towards his father, and most deserving
to be disinherited?
Chapter XXX: False Religion of Fathers to Be Abandoned
Others say, It is wicked if we do not worship those idols
which have come down to us from our fathers, and prove false
to the religion bequeathed to us by our ancestors. On this
principle, if any ones father was a robber or a base fellow, he
ought not to change the manner of life handed down to him by
his fathers, nor to be recalled from his fathers errors to a better
way; and it is reckoned evil if one does not sin with his
parents, or does not persist in evil with them. Others say, We
ought not to be troublesome to Elohim and to be always burdening
Him with complaints of our miseries or with the exigencies
of our petitions. How foolish and witless an answer!
Do you think it is troublesome to Elohim if you thank Him for
His benefits, while you do not think it troublesome to Him if,
for His gifts, you render thanks to stocks and stones? And how
comes it, that when rain is withheld in a long drought, we all
turn our eyes to heaven, and entreat the gift of rain from Yahweh
Almighty, and all of us with our little ones pour out prayers
on Elohim and entreat His compassion? But truly
ungrateful beings, when they obtain the blessing, quickly forget:
for as soon as they have gathered in their harvest or their
vintage, straightway they offer the firstfruits to deaf and dumb
images, and pay vows in temples or groves for those things
which Yahweh Elohim has bestowed upon them, and then offer
sacrifices to demons; and having received a favor, deny the
Bestower of the favor.
Chapter XXXI: Paganism, Its Enormities
But some say, These things are instituted for the sake of
joy, and for refreshing our minds; and they have been devised