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The meaning and effect of the legislation

This legislation surrounded the Jews with a fence that gave no foreign element a way to mix with them. The result was that the Jews became like a single family whose members married only one another. Before Ezra's time there were some seventy or a hundred tribes among whom a Jew married at thirteen years of age and was required to do so by eighteen. Had they followed this method and not suffered the disasters that repeatedly befell them, they would have covered the face of the earth with their offspring.

The differences in their complexions and appearances are said to support the theory that the Jews, though scattered through the two worlds, are not a people possessing unity but a family whose members marry only one another.

They applied their minds to enslaving people through the power of their gold in different ages and countries, requiring great effort to escape their enslavement. The proof that they live like one united family, the author claims, is that in addition to supporting one another in their misfortunes, they resemble one another in every social situation. They know how to display their goods and, with great cunning, flatter the figures from whom they hope to obtain some benefit. Nor do any of them hesitate to use the immense power of their gold