And by Moses has God Himself cried, thus saying: And ye shall circumcise the hardness of your heart, and your neck ye shall harden no more; for the Lord, your God and Lord of lords, is a great God and strong and terrible, who accepteth no man’s person, nor ever receiveth a gift. And in Leviticus, because they transgressed and held me in contempt, and because they walked before me crookedly, so did I walk with them crookedly, and I will destroy them in the land of their enemies. Then shall their uncircumcised heart feel shame.
For the circumcision according to the flesh, that was from Abraham, was given for a sign, that ye should be separated from the other nations and us, and that ye alone should suffer the things ye are rightly suffering now, and that your lands should be desolate and your cities burned with fire,Isaiah 1:7 and that foreigners should eat up the fruits before your face, and none of you go up unto Jerusalem.
For by nothing else are ye to be known from other men, save by the circumcision that is in your flesh. For none of you, as I suppose, will dare to say that God was and is not both possessed of knowledge beforehand of the events to come, and also is preparing beforehand the things that each deserves. And therefore all this has happened to you rightly and well.
For ye slew the Just One and His prophets before Him, and now ye reject, and, as far as in you lies, dishonour those that set their hope on Him, and God Almighty and Maker of the universe who sent Him, cursing in your synagogues them that believe on Christ. For you have not authority to raise your own hands against us, because of them that are now supreme. But as often as ye could, this also ye did.
Therefore also God calls out to you by Isaiah, saying: See how the righteous hath perished, [and no one lays it to heart; and righteousness men are taken], and no one considereth it. For from the face of iniquity hath the righteous been taken. He shall be in peace; His burial is taken out of the midst. Ye drew nigh hither, ye lawless children, seed of adulterers and children of a harlot. At whom did ye make merry, and against whom did ye open your mouth, and on whom did ye let your tongue loose?