1But this argument is entirely ridiculous, for it is evident that reason rules not over its own passions but over those of the body.
2No one of us can eradicate that kind of desire, but reason can provide a way for us not to be enslaved by desire.
3 came, sweating and quite exhausted, to the royal tent, around which the whole army of our ancestors had encamped.
9Now all the rest were at dinner,
10but the king was extremely thirsty, and though springs were plentiful there, he could not satisfy his thirst from them.
11But a certain irrational desire for the water in the enemy’s territory tormented and inflamed him, undid and consumed him.
12When his guards complained bitterly because of the king’s craving, two staunch young soldiers, respecting the king’s desire, armed themselves fully and taking a pitcher climbed over the enemy’s ramparts.
13Eluding the sentinels at the gates, they went searching throughout the enemy camp
14and found the spring and from it boldly brought the king a drink.
15But David, though he was burning with thirst, considered it an altogether fearful danger to his soul to drink what was regarded as equivalent to blood.
16Therefore, opposing reason to desire, he poured out the drink as an offering to God.
17For the temperate mind can conquer the drives of the passions and quench the flames of frenzied desires;
18it can overthrow bodily agonies even when they are extreme and by nobility of reason spurn all domination by the passions.
An Attempt on the Temple Treasury19The present occasion now invites us to a narrative demonstration of temperate reason.
20At a time when our ancestors were enjoying profound peace because of their observance of the law and were prospering, so that even Seleucus Nicanor, king of Asia, had both appropriated money to them for the temple service and recognized their way of life—
21Ex 30.12; 2 Chr 24.6; 2 Macc 14.26just at that time certain persons attempted a revolution against the public harmony and caused many and various disasters.
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