Jeremiah Part 37

NAHUM

The last we have. They are milch cows to provide food for nursing mothers and the sick.

HANANIAH

Such thrift is impious where G.o.d is concerned. Let the sick starve and the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the women run dry, so long as G.o.d receives due meed of sacrifice.

PASHUR

[Earnestly] G.o.d requires no gifts to make him aware of our distresses.

HANANIAH

Naught is sweeter to the Lord than the gifts of the needy. We should give to the uttermost, tearing the morsels from our own mouths.

PASHUR

I know the customs. It is not for you, Hananiah, to teach me my duty, which I know better perchance than you know G.o.d's word and G.o.d's will.

HANANIAH

Who sacrifices grudgingly, who sacrifices with a cold heart, is but a slaughterman, and no true servant of the Lord. Lo, I say unto you unless ye give of your uttermost need, ye are unworthy to stand in the light of his countenance.

ZEDEKIAH

[Pa.s.sionately] Hold your peace. Your words are past bearing. But a few grains of sand have run through the hour gla.s.s, and already you rail against one another. We do not meet to discuss what it is fitting we should render unto G.o.d. We meet to consider our pressing need, and how we can relieve it. We are in the throes of war, and to you therefore I turn first for counsel, Abimelech, general of my army.

ABIMELECH

Stout are the walls of Jerusalem, O King, but stouter still is my heart.

ZEDEKIAH

And your men, old stalwart; are they, too, stout-hearted? Rarely do I hear them raise exultant cries. When I pa.s.s among them, no longer do they strike their s.h.i.+elds. They turn away their faces.

ABIMELECH

War makes men silent, but it steels their hearts. No longer, indeed, do they shout with delight, for that they can use their swords freely.

Custom stales all joys. But they watch and wait; strong as bra.s.s are they, guarding the walls of Jerusalem.

ZEDEKIAH

But what if the moons still wax and wane; what if the second year of the siege begins? There is no help coming from outside.

ABIMELECH

The siege will last as long as G.o.d pleases, and we shall last as long as the siege.

ZEDEKIAH

May the Lord fulfil thy words. [To the others] Are ye all of the same opinion?

PASHUR

We must be steadfast, enduring patiently until the end.

ZEDEKIAH

What sayest thou, Hananiah?

HANANIAH

Never shall Nebuchadnezzar overthrow us. Woe unto all faint-hearts. Did it rest with me, I would put them to the sword.

IMRE

Mine eyes are dim with age, but being old, I saw the days when Senaccherib was arrayed against Israel, and I saw his men lying dead in heaps around our walls. Never were the jackals so fat as in the year when Jerusalem was encircled by the enemies of the Lord. The same may happen again to those who now besiege us. Let mine eyes not be wholly darkened ere this day dawn. Jerusalem endureth for ever!

ABIMELECH, HANANIAH, PASHUR

Jerusalem endureth for ever!

[A pause]

ZEDEKIAH

Thou sayest nothing, Nahum. Wherefore art thou silent?

NAHUM

Gloomy are my thoughts, Lord King, and bitter will be my speech. He thrusts not himself forward, to whom joy is lacking.

ZEDEKIAH

I summoned you in council, one and all. Welcome is the bearer of good tidings, but no less welcome he who brings wise warnings. Speak freely.

NAHUM

Shortly before you called me to the council, I was visiting the storehouses, and having the grain measured, bushel by bushel. They were full when the siege began, but now they are almost empty. No longer can we provide a whole loaf for the day's ration.

[All sit in dismayed silence]

ZEDEKIAH

Was there not ample provision of grain from the villages? Was not an abundance of milch cows and other beasts driven within the walls?

NAHUM