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no evil against him, is it the case that his mind was bent on the vindication of justice, and
not on the acquisition of absolute power? And is it true that the deities did take their delight
in manners like these, as if they were themselves enemies to their own states, in so far as
they favoured those who were the enemies of these communities? Nay rather, neither did
they by deserting them harm the one class, nor did they by passing over to their side in any
sense help the other. For they have it not in their power to give kingship or to remove it.
But that is done by the one true God, according to His hidden counsel. And it is not His
mind to make those necessarily blessed to whom He may have given an earthly kingdom,
or to make those necessarily unhappy whom He has deprived of that position. But He makes
men blessed or wretched for other reasons and by other means, and either by permission
or by actual gift distributes temporal and earthly kingdoms to whomsoever He pleases, and
for whatsoever period He chooses, according to the fore-ordained order of the ages.
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Of the Fact that the God of the Jews, After the Subjugation of that People,…