מות אבימלך ועלייתו בזרועות אימו השמיימה (הוספתי תמונות. המשך יבוא, בע"ה)

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את הספר תרגמתי בשנות ה-70 של המאה הקודמת, – ולמה נזכרתי בו לפתע? כי יש מי שנמנצא מתענין בו.
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Pinchas Sadeh

THE DEATH OF ABIMELECH
AND HIS ASCENT TO HEAVEN IN THE ARMS OF HIS MOTHER

Translated from the Hebrew by Moshe Ganan

This is the story about the life of Abimelech the king of Shechem, about his dreams and death, and his ascent to heaven in the arms of his mother. There is no sweetness in this story, only darkness, wrath and languish, like the fog that mounts up at dawn on the face of the deserted valley, flutters and climbs up towards the crests of the hills, strives to enter clefts and gorges, stretches out strange hands between the bushes and the twisted, crooked roots, expands and fully covers the gloomy scene – such has the life of this man been and like this is the story. Here it is, however, the story itself; Some time before the birth of Abimelech it came to pass, that a date-juice vendor put down his pails and commenced to cry out bitterly in the streets of Shechem; "Oh fire! Ah flames'" And again; "Ah fire! Oh flames!" That was all he said, but because of his broken and quivering voice his hearers could not but understand that he prophesied the destruction of the town and was singing it his dirge. Many thought him a miserable madman, and his neighbours came tocame to appease the evil spirits dwelling with him in the house, made a mixture of flour, yolk and honey and poured it into the aperture of the latrine where the evil ones dwell, demanding of them to depart and leave the vendor-prophet alone. Yet there were also a few who were touched by his words, in spite of the gullible and grotesque in them, and fear found in them a dwelling and they had strange thoughts. Finally all these things reached the ears of the magistrate of the town, who was known by the name of Yaacov the Chuckler, and he, although disbelieving prophecies, but suspecting a disorder that may ensue from this state of the matter, and since the whole thing was to him nauseating, ordered the seer to be strangled.

That was the way, then, in which the date-juice vendor became the first victim to fall on account of Abimelech, before this latter was even born. Yet at that time there came to pass also other things, hinting, as it were, that the fate of this man, who, as already implied, was to reign in Shechem, and to be, in a certain sense, the first king of the Hebrews, his fate, then, would not be an ordinary one. The first of these events was the sign that appeared to his mother in the sixth month of her pregnancy; at midnight, in her dream, she , she saw a child floating in a well, thorns of bramble crowning his head and drops of blood flowing off the thorns. Istahar – because that was the girl-mother's name – awoke astonished from her dream, and lo! behold, there was nothing around her but darkness and chill cold. And as the dream lay heavy on her heart, she arose out of her bed and decided to go straight to the Chaldaean dream-reader, who, like her and like many of the poor lived outside the walls of the city. She went out into the night, and across the winding paths, wet with dew entangled by the wild bushes, she reached the tent of the Chaldaean, on the slopes of Mount Eyval. The man was sitting, silent, his old head, like a bird's, illuminated by the candle-light. Istahar .told him her dream.. Her words over, silence returned and fell on the tent again. The candle was burning to its end. "Verily so", said the Chaldaean finally, and his voice was feeble. "Verily so; the child thou hast seen and the child that will be born of you are the same." Istahar, however, had guessed that much by herself already, and what she wanted was to know the solution of her dream. And about that, after a long while of hesitation, said the seer: "The meaning of your dream, my girl, is that you won't have the blessing to suckle your child." But those words were no less a riddle than the dream itself, and Istahar asked; did the seer mean to say that the child would be a still-born? Only now did the man raise his eyes, looking at her. In spite of her carrying in her the fruit of her womb, she was yet very young, only about sixteen years old. Her fine face was framed by thick looks of brown hair, her-eyes the colour of amber. In the old man's eyes, that had seen everything there is to see of good and bad altogether, and to which good and bad, catastrophe and happiness seemed but outward forms, changing clothes of a coxcomb life-goddess, even in the old man's eyes, then, there passed, glimmering, a fleeting shadow of wonder at the sight of the profound and strange magic of the girl's beauty. Then he said: "Your son will die by the hand of a woman, and this, my daughter, is the meaning of his descent into the well." Istahar touched, hesitating, the seer's arm. "Please, Sir," she said in a whisper, "may not this be altered?" To which, in a sad tone, raising his eyes to the starry heaven paling at the sight of the approaching dawn, the Chaldaean answered: "What could we, here below, do? Real life is there, in heaven. Here it is only the mirror of life that is taking its course."

Another sign appeared, there too, after a while, and lo! behold, it came to pass. And it happened on a morning, as Istahar went out to the meadows to gather of the fruit of the bramble. Now this plant, bearing its relation to the story of Abimelech's life, and which is mentioned also in the Psalms, is not today very well known. The translators of the Bible into the Latin language called it ramnus, but the sages of Israel in the Middle Ages believed that it is the plant called in Arabic "'osage". But we know that the Arabs will call by that I name many different kinds of plants of the ramnus -, as well as of the liceum-family. Experts are inclined to identify the Biblical bramble with the plant called by the latin name of Europaeum Litium; and if so, the bramble is a rough pricky shrub, its height that of a little boy, its leaves neaty and elongated, its flowers violet and bell-formed, and its fruits are small edible grapes. And so went Istahar outout to the meadows to gather of the fruit, the shrub having become dear to her heart since she saw her son crowned by its foliage. She also bought in the alleys of Shechem from a goldsmith an iron ring with the image of the bramble wrought upon it. Clouds rose suddenly from the west, rain fell, and Istahar took shelter in the shadow of a fig-tree. As she sat there, lonely in the midst of the graying landscape slowly growing more and more desolate and melancholy, her fingers began to draw on the sand the word Abimelech*. That was the name she wished to call the son to be born of her womb and she also wrought it on the ring, because she said in her heart that the father of the child, although only a judge, is well alike to a king, and verily the people entreated him, too, after the victory over Midian, that he put the crown on; his head. And behold, at that moment a raven alighted, having sat still till that moment on one of the branches of the fig-tree, and began to walk there a bit to and fro, its head lowered, as if it was looking for something lost. Finally it hit with its beak once or twice into the dust, and flew again back to the top of the tree. And Istahar, looking down, saw that the raven touched the word she wrote, but erased therefrom nothing except the first letter only, so that now it stood there written Bimelech, that is, I bear within myself a king.

The young Gideon

She concealed these things in her heart, and that, because they contradicted the words of the old prophet, who foretold, as much as she understood, that she will give birth to a dead child, in a way being his mother and his murderer at once. Moreover, it was not easy for her to believe, after all, that the issue of her womb will be a king. Nevertheless, after that various events took place in Shechem and its vicinity, filling the hearts of the people with wonder and fear; for example, at the time of the sacrifices in the Holy Temple of the lord of the Covenant, a stream of blood spurted forth out of the mouth of the cattle, covering the eyes of the High Priest, a fat man with a feeble heart, who, when the blood covered his eyes,, as if stricken, collapsed. Around him stood the congregation, and the women shrieked. The event was taken as a bad sign, and old man asserted that a child soon to be born would bring but disaster on the town. But who this child would be? No one certainly, could answer such aquestion. Something similar happened in the days of Pharaoh, Egypt's king, when told that a Hebrew child would shake his throne, so that he saw no solution but to order that all the newborn children be cast into the Nile. But this is a well-known story.

Then again something wonderful happened: several nights through the candle of God went out, and went out again, although the doors of the Temple remained closed. They suspected the beadle-boy, perhaps he was the one to play those tricks, and a man was put in ambush, but it soon became clear, that the urchin, who was, by the way, very lazy, felt it only a blessing that he was left to sleep at nights unharassed and did not even dream of getting out of his warm couch to perpetrate such pranks. In the annals of the town it was found written that many years ago, In the days of Hamor the son of Shechem the President, .already an event like that occurred, and then, as known, it led to a catastrophe – the people of Shechem were butchered by the hands of Simeon and Levy, the sons of Yaacov, and the women were ravished. Therefore is the extinguishing of the candle interpreted as an evil omen, as if God himself closed his eyes, abandoning Man to his fate. Because, verily, it happens that people, in their foolishness, forget that there is a God, although all that has no Importance, since Man and his thoughts matter nothing in the eyes of God. Such is the situation when God forgets Man. This is the ultimate terror.

So went by a certain time, till one night of rain and wrath, in the sevent month of her pregnancy, Istahar fell into childbed. She did not cry. And even had she cried, there would have been nobody to attend to her, since her abode stood in the meadows. But as to Istahar herself, this is her story: She was born to her parents, who counted among the highborn of Shechem, and her father traded successfully with the caravans travelling between Damascus and Egypt .He as well as his family lived a life of pleasure,but the face of his daughter, Istahar, was smileless for ever. She would escape the house sometimes and wander through valleys and mountains, returning after a day or two, she looked like a little wild animal, hungry and sun-ridden. She told nobody why she had left the house, spoke with only a few and even then very little, refused to wear expensive clothes or jewels, and would sleep nowhere except on the floor.Fourteen years old she was when it happened that she arose at midnight and set afire one of her father's granaries. Since that time her parents tried to give her away to a man in marriage,but she rejected all the grooms, some of them lean and healthy, some of them taciturn, some eloquent and loquacious, but all went out from before her desolate and wretched. And it went so till the day when the judge Jerubaal, called also Gideon, a name meaning "hero", came to visit Shechem. And it would be only meet to finish this chapter, the end of which we reach now,with the remark that we would not tell at length the story of Istahar, the unfortunate concubine who wandered in the complicated maze of life in this world full of misery, were it not for Abimelech, since those far between and few, who remembered at the end of days Istahar and knew Abimelech, could discern the resemblance between the mother and the son, as well as to the outward face as to the inward form, and so one can assert that it is impossible to speak about Abimelech without speaking first about his mother, and as we shall yet see in the course of this narrative, without realizing the mystic links attaching mother and son in his life as also in his death.

Ishtahar

And so Jerubaal came to town, and. in spite of his authority being already unstable, as he was by then an old and weak-spirited man, he was received with honour and high regard. The city-magistrate, a man called Yaacov, came to the gates of the city to make him welcome. This was the man known as Yaacov the Chuckler: and he was accompanied also by a little committee of the worthy. When Jerubaal reached the city-walls in his chariot, on the dusty road, covered by scorched wild grass and saw Yaacov the Chuckler, he stepped down and kissed the man on both cheeks, because he remembered Yaacov as one of his adjutants in the war against Midian. The worthy smiled a fat, self-appeased smile. At noon the clerk arranged a banquet in honour of his guest, and while this letter sat bent and limp amongst the concubines, the he-whores and the scribes, his host, who was a man inclined to wit, told him about Istahar, this beautiful and strange daughter of his town. The words fell on sensitive and recipient ears, because in spite of Jerubaal's being at that time old and weak-spirited, held in the hands of his imbecile sons, and having no more wars to fight, or great deeds to do, one thing only was still left him and that was to love his many wives. Therefore did Jerubaal listen. He thought it all over, and. in the evening he went in his charriot to the house of Istahar's father accompanied by the clerk. There he sat several hours, eating and drinking, and several things were said, in conclusion of which he went on his way, and with him in his chariot the child-wife Istahar.

Some may ask, perhaps, why did the girl consent to go with the old man, yet to this question there is no clear answer. Who can tell? Most likely she preferred the man of war, the greatest hero since the times of Ehud the son of Sera, the one who thrust his sword into the intestines of Eglon, king of Moab, and spilt his belly, while the king's servants sat in the adjoining room unaware of whatever was happening to their lord. So she preferred Gideon in the face of the poor miserable young merchants. All the same, Istahar came to the house of Jerubaal at Ophra. As a matter of fact, at first all that did not arouse her father's resentment, as after all, was it not to be taken as a great honour to become father-in-law to a judge in Israel? But then it came out that Jerubaal would not take Istahar into the holy wedlock, but held her instead as a concubine only. At first Jerubaal had other intentions, but two reasons made him act as finally he did; the first of these was, that in his declining years his sons ruled over him, his sons and their wives and their mothers, all masters of intrigues, and those opposed his marrying a beloved woman, soon to be the lady and heiress of the house. However, even if Jerubaal could have forged his will on the members of his household by a firm word because they were lazy and cowardly or appease them by gifts, because they also were lustful and greedy, after all, and here is the second reason, a power mightier then them and him stood in his way. This was the power of Pinchas, the High Priest of the Tribes of Israel.

This one, although very old, was a man stern in spirit and. great in honour before his people, and it was not easy to ignore his words; because when rumours of what happened reached his ears, his wrath burned white. Cooling down after a while, he summoned Ely, the one who himself became many years later the High Priest, but was now only an acolyte, and ordered him to write down those words on a parchment: "From Pinchas the Priest in Shiloh to Gideon the Judge in Ophra. It was told me that you intend to take unto you a wife, a daughta daughter from the issue of Hamor. Be it known unto you, son of man, that you are but like an insect in the hands of God that holds you above the flaming fire, and should you bite this hand he will Cast you into the fire, because God knows how to take account of the affairs of men. Know then that you have been warned. And now, if you attend my words peace will reign between us, and if you do not listen there will not reign peace between us."

Such were the words of Pinchas. But it is possible that even this threat would not have melted Jerubaal's heart, since he was a hero of war, and, moreover, he did not lust for power, it being for him all the same whether the people wanted him foreign or not. Nevertheless the words of the priest touched his heart., because he remembered that the victorious deliverance which he had the privilege to win, had come from the hands of God, and he knew -that that moment, many years ago, the moment in which the eyes of God rested on him, on Jerubaal, this unique and singular moment alone gave to his life its sense a, this one moment, and not his possessions and wealth, nor his sons-and relatives, nor honour, pleasure, power, all that passes like the wisp-o- will, flies away like shadow, like the fish that swims soundlessly away in the river. And if so, he asked himself, how then could he rise against the priest of God, the friend of the Almighty? But as against that, he went on to ask himself, will it not be evil in the eyes of the Lord to do wrong with the girl who is innocent of all sin whatsoever ? Finally he decided that it was impossible to do other- wise than as the priest told him and he could not but obey. We will see, however, that the meaning of God was too deep for a man, or even for a priest, to decipher it at that time. As it became became clear after years God intended to weave the thread of events so that the son of the heavy-hearted concubine would make the House of Jerubaal's worst enemy. But that will be made manifest only with time. The ways of the narrative are dark and obscure, almost like the ways of life. And so, after all, Jerubaal did not marry Istahar, although he loved her, and since the day his will was negated, he just withered more and more broken away. Having found him in this state, his sons made him accept their will, and they sent sent Istahar from the house. She returned to Shechem, where Yaacov the clerk gave her a hut and a vineyard at the feet of Mount Eyval. There, deserted and outcast by her family, she dwelled. Gloom and darkness gathered around her days in that life, like the darkness of her nights on her lonely canopy where she lay turning and twisting in her labour. Rain fell howling, lightning cast a glow for a moment on the storm-ridden branches in the window. Thorny boughs broke in the wind. Hours went by, and all around was nothing but but darkness and water, and only from far away began a pale light to appear, and that was the light of the dawn. Then she saw again the child crowned by the bramble, and the thorns were dropping great drops of blood, and the child holding out his arms towards her. And two workmen, arising early for their work and passing near her hut at dawn, deemed to hear the sound of an infant crying. – They stopped and looked embarrassed at the place, but finally, having laid their axes against the wall, they entered the house. Inside, they saw a baby, crying, clinging to the breasts of Istahar, embraced by her arms, which were beautiful and dead. So, then, was the young girl redeemed of her sufferings in this world. Several things happened afterwards. A woman who was urgently called from the neighbourhood bathed the child and the mother's white feet that were coveredwith blood. And at noon they buried her in the meadows, and the child, wrapped in white linen, was sent in the hands of the faithful woman, to the clerk of the town. The clerk, who was at that hour sitting at his dinner, pondered on it awhile, then ordered the woman, after having given her a certain sum, to go and take the child to his father's house in Ophra.

"The meaning of your dream, my girl, is that you won't have …to suckle your child".

12.

So then was brought the suckling, which grew and became after many a day a man, the story of whose life and wonderful and frightful death we are about to tell here, to Ophra, and yet there things turned out otherwise than expected. And that, because Jater, the first-born of Jerubaal, who happened at that hour to sit at the porch of the house, saw the faithful woman come riding on a donkey, with the child in her lap. Being the son of the master, he called her and asked her of her business here: and she answered what she answered. So he took the child from her hands and ordered her to return to her home, and she obeyed his words, after she had bound with a thread on the neck of the child the iron ring with the emblem of the bramble, the ring that was found on the finger of the dead Istahar. Jater went on watching the woman till she disappeared among the bushes. Then he called an old maidservant and handed the child over to her, to raise it among the other offsprings of the servants, but told her nothing aboat where the child came from. He told her only that much, that she had his permission to give the child, or as he called it, the bastard, goatmilk to drink, and if it will live, it will live, and yet if it will die, so then it will die. So saying he cast down his eyes, because he verily did wish the child to die, but as when many days ago he was taken aback at the thought of killing by his own hands, the generals of Midian, Orev and Zeev, and let his father do the difficult and unbearable. The goodhearted old woman took the child with her to her home, and since then she became for him like a mother. And as to the riddle of the origins of the child, who was called Abimelech, according to the name found wrought on the ring, not a long time after all had to pass till it became common knowledge, since many Shechemites, among them the two workmen and the faithful woman came, as it happens, to visit Ophra and to ask about the health of the child. Jerubaal alone, of all men, did not know till the day of his death about his son by Istahar.

13.

So time passed, and Abimelech became seven years old; and in his outward image as well as in the inward form of his soul he grew to look like Istahar, his mother. Like her, for example, he did not like to sleep on soft couches, the embroidered clothes the old woman made for him he took off and dressed in poor ones, delicate foods he hated, only the sound of music was to his liking. He refrained from speaking for days on end, till some thought him stupid, and if people insulted him he took off and threw at them shingles and stones from a distance. One day he disappeared from home. Yet, as it happened, the day after some women went to the woods, and there they saw the child lying on the shore of the brook, the brook of Kanah, between grass and flowers, his eyes calmly surveying the stream. They called his name, but .he did not stir;and when they came near him, they heard him whisper; "Mother, mother", looking at the image of his face reflected in the water. One of the women, taking his hand, led him home. There he lay on his bed for a number of days.

14.

On one of these days he saw a dream. In his dream he was back at the brook in the woods. Sorrow and mist permeated the scene. A flock of yellow-toothed bitches surrounded him there, but from the depths of the water, scintillating through the quivering transparency of the stream, his mother, lovely and exquisite, was calling him, without words, to come to her. Abimelech awoke, and then fell asleep again, and lo! here he saw an ape coming out of the bushes, a giant, hairy ape running with a torch in hand, setting afire houses, clothes, books and instruments, running, laughing and howling, flushed by red flames, summoning en passant the dreamer by the help of strange wonderful poetry to return with him to the twilight of the wilderness … Abimelech awoke again, and fell again asleep, and behold, he was once more lying in the fields, under a crimson sky of the coming night. But where did the red drops of blood on his hands and feet come from? And why and whence did his mother come, her feet white like the lily, going down above him on her her knees, kissing his face, covering his body by white linen? He did not know, and only as one submerged in a boundless sweetness he slept on, carried, as in a cradle, on his mother's lovely arms.

15.

When Abimelech became eight years old, his foster-mother told him the story of the creation: "On the first day God created light and separated light from Darkness, and He saw that light was good and Darkness evil. On the second day God created Heaven, to which we shall ascend on a ladder after we die. The third day He created Earth, that brings forth for us wheat and fruit, and vegetables, and the flowers. On the fourth day He created the far-away stars, in which our fortunes stand written. On the fifth He created the fish, some of them edible and some bitter. And on the sixth day God created all the beasts and animals, also the flying fowls, and us too, man and woman, and ordered us to cleave to each other, although it may happen that the man dies and the woman is left a widow, and it is not easy for her." "But tell me now," said Abimelech, "why did not God create man on a separate day, like the one in which He created the fish for sale?" The old woman became embarrassed , and after having kept her counsel in silence for a while, she said.; "And now I shall tell you about "the lord. Moses, who overcame the bear sent against him by the magicians of Egypt, and who created, a negress out of clay and. breathed into her nostrils the breath of life and. married her." "No, do not go on", said. Abimelech, "since if in the eyes of God man is not worth even as much as a fish, then it is not worthwhile to hear countless long stories about him".

16.

A certain man dwelling at that time in the Judaean Desert, a hermit clothed, in rags, living on herbs and on water left over on the hollow of the rocks in dry riverbeds. And this is the story of the man; In his youth he lived in Shechem, and there he betrothed himself to a beautiful girl. Yet, a few days before the celebration of the marriage, he suddenly decided. not to marry her, but to leave and live alone in the desert. And when people, astonished, asked him about his decision, he said that man has no need of wordly things, since God dwells inside him. And when asked how is that possible, if God dwells in all and everywhere, also in the trees and even in the stones, he said: "The stones and also the trees and heaven are inside me." And when they went on asking him whether God in his opinion is then small like a grain, he answered and said that verily God is small like a grain, and also mighty like Heaven in its entirety. But they could not understand him. So he left and lived in the desert for ten years. At the end of these years a man who happened there told him that the girl, his one-time betrothed, had become a leper, and was now living, outcast and hated, in a cave outside the town. So the man arose and returned to Shechem, and he came to the leprous woman, and took her to himself as his wife, and went to live with her in the cave. We are to return and tell more, in the course of this story, about him.

17.

When Abimelech reached his tenth year of life, he was handed over to a shepherd to live among the boys, one of whom was Jater's son. Once, when they were in the mountai.ns, this latter began to nudge the heavy-laden ass, till the poor animal, disgusted with his long-standing suffering and fear-stricken, ran amock and kicked at everybody approaching. Abimelech went up to it, and the shepherds wondered seeing how the bewildered beast calmed down against Abimelech's poised eyes. He caressed the neck of the animal a bit and gave it some water. This deed was bad in the eyes of Jater's son, and in the evening, while they set around the fire, he said that it was easy for Abimelech to appease the animal, considering that Abimelech himself was an animal, the descendant of Hamor the son of Shechem, who was an ass. His attendants around the fire laughed, and Abimelech, silent, stared at the thorny branch aglow in his hand. Suddenly he sent his hand with the branch near before the eyes of his opponent and said whispering: "Just don't move, or I will burn your eyes out of your head." The boy dared not move, and so passed a moment, till his eyebrows got scorched, yet he was dumb with fear. The red glow of the pyre illuminated the scene, taking place, as it were,in a godforgotten far-away place between the hills. Rain began to fall, the pyre went out and the men took shelter in the cave.

18.

The next day the son of Jater rode to Ophra and told his father all the evil done by Abimelech. Jater at once ordered one of his slaves, a tough man from Sidon named Zevul, to bring Abimelech before him; and when the boy was brought, bound by ropes, before Jater, who was sitting in a room near the fireside, as it was a very cold day, he ordered that they bind the boy to a tree in the courtyard. And to his son Jater said: "Lash this bastard with your whip, since I have sworn already by the stars that I will bring upon him a severe punishment and heavy suffering." Yet, the boy did not dare do it. Jater, remembering how his father ordered him, years ago, to pierce Orev and Zeev, the generals of Midian with his sword, and how he was afraid to do it, sighed and ordered the rough slave to flog Abimelech. The boy did not cry nor did he groan during the process, and Jater, staring at him all that time through the window, said to himself; "God strike me dead if I do not strike you dead first."

19.

When night descended and twilight covered the earth and the sky and the universe fell into darkness, Abimelech fled from Ophra. Silence reigned over the length and breadth of the country, because the cold night chased every living being into their den, and even the furred foxes hid in their holes and caves. After a while it began to snow. The tiny white flakes, more of them and more, covered the meadows by and by, and the pathway; and Abimelech's feet, treading the cold mud, became heavy. Hours went by, when from somewhere a sound was heard of little bells tinkling. A caravan was passing. Abimelech hid between the bushes. Three camels went by, and only the faint sound of their bells and the sound of the snow under their feet came through to him. The camel-drivers, covered by their cloaks, seemed to have fallen asleep. Whither the caravan? Perhaps to the Philistine towns, at the shore of the sea, perhaps to Egypt, the land of witchdoctors and palaces? And verily Abimelech thought for a moment to rise and declare: "Here I am, take me with you, men!" and they perhaps would have taken him with them, like the Ishmaelites had done with Joseph the young man years ago. But Abimelech remained quiet and mute.

20.

At a morning hour, not too early, advancing from among the hills, lying at the heart of the valley, the view of the town Shechem opened. before him. At its two flanks rose the hills of Gerizim and Eyval, and the whole landscape before him, the meadows and the crowns of the trees, the walls and the watchtowers all along, the silver cup of the temple and the roofs of the houses were sheathed in snow. The air was all around him silent and frozen. After having stood there, erect and lonely, for a while, watching the town on which he was within a years to bring, although he could not have guessed it now, fire and bloodshed and the shrieks of those smitten by the sword, he turned his eyes and went up, step by step, the slopes of Mount Eyval. Finally he reached the deserted spot on the top of the hill, and there he stopped. Below, the town and the valley spread out at his feet, and beyond these, to the west, the sea; and, east of the winding silver thread of the Jordan, the mountains of Moab. Above him, not very high, hung the infinite space of the ivory sky, in which, as Abimelech knew dwells God. The boy let his eyes rest for a long moment on these heavens, and then, as if there were somebody listening to him, he cried out in a clear voice: "I hate you, God."

21.

At that moment he felt, that there really was somebody listening. Turning his head, he saw an old man, whose bald skull resembled that of a bird's, standing and staring at him. So they stood, till the man turned slowly, and started to descend the slope. As if unawares, Abimelech went after him and so they walked, soundless, till they reached the old man's tent. And while this latter bent forward to rekindle the fire on the hearth, Abimelech,overcome by fatigue, dropped on a goat-hair rag spread out on the floor, and fell asleep at once. Then he dreamt a dream: like the mist wondering at dawn through the forest, pale, shivering, appeared his mother's face before him. "Mother", said Abimelech, "where are you? I am always looking for you." "My son", said the mother, "I am very far, but also very near to you." "Mother", said Abimelech, "could I come to you?" . "My child", said the mother," I am with you always, but you cannot come to me". "Wheresoever you are," went on Abimelech, "what do you do?" How the mother's answer hesitated to come for a whole moment, but finally she said; "I am drinking water." "Mother", said now Abimelech, "I would like to die, that I may come to you." And the mother answered: "You can not yet come, my child." "But when shall I come to you?" "In the tower of Tevez," she answered, and her face dissolved in the mist.

22.

A whole day and night Abimelech slept without dreaming anymore. When he awoke, the morning sun shone on the green plateau, strewn with a multitude of flowers, some of them yellow and some red and blue. The old man brought him bread and milk, and the youth sat down to dine with him. During dinner, they had a few words between them. The old man said that Abimelech must return to Ophra. "But what if Jater kills me?" asked Abimelech. "He will not", answered the grizzle, and to Abimelech's question, how the old man may know that, he said: "So it stays written in the stars."

The Chaldean sage

"And for how long am I to dwell in 0phra? asked Abimelech. "Not for long", answered the old man, and added: "Something will happen that will make you leave Ophra." "And what will that something be? "asked Abimelech, "I do not know that", said the man, "the stars speak about future events in general, not in particular." "Tell me, please, my lord, what will be my end", said Abimelech. "Did you learn to know your beginning", asked the old man, "that you want to know about your end? Because where the beginning is, there is the end." They both sat silent for a while. "If so, I shall and will have to return," said Abimelech. "Verily, you shall have to return," said the old man.

23.

That morning two small boys were playing in a courtyard. Then one of them said to the other; "Behold, I shall enter the house, my head is splitting with pain." And so he left the courtyard and entered and lay down on his bed without uttering a word till night fell. Then he said to his mother: "Bring me a feather and some ink and a pergamen." His mother was astonished, as the boy had never learned to read nor to write, and had in him nothing pertaining to learning and knowledge, codification or history. And when the feather and the parchment had been brought before him, the boy said: "I shall now write down the names of the kings that reigned, in Edom," and he wrote thus: "Bela the son of Beor of Benhaha, the Golden; Yobab the son of Zerach from Bazrah, the Stronghold; Hasham of Theman, from the South; Hadad the son of Badad from Evith, built on the ruins of an ancient town smitten by the lord for its sins; Saul from the Paths in the River; Baal Haran, the son of Achbor; Samla, from Masreka, the town of the crimson wine; Hadar of Peo, whose wife's name was Mehitabel, ,the daughter of Mitrad, daughter of the town near the Scarlet-Golden Water." Thereafter he lay back on his bed, without speaking one more word for the rest of his life.

24.

Nothing pleasant or unpleasant in extreme happened to Abimelech after he had returned to Ophra; when Jater had learned of his return, he stayed mute. Several years went thus by. Then one morning Abimelech awoke at the sound of a summons. The man calling told him that Zevul, the punic slave from Sidon, had escaped, and that Abimelech was to join the pursuers. And that was the story, from its beginning; Two slaves escaped during the night, one of them Zevul, the son of the punic sailor, who, many years ago, fell into the hands of pirates from Crete, who sold him to the Midianites, who sold him to Jerubaal. A son was born to him in captivity, named by his father by the name of Zevul, after his God's name, because the father did not forget his former life, and he also made his son take the oath to escape at the first coming opportunity out of his house of bondage and slavery.

Zevul

That is all about Zevul, and his mate's name was Belkis. So the two fled, but were not yet very far when Belkis fell into a well in the meadows and his legs were broken. He urged Zevul to leave him and. go on alone, because why should they both be lost. In the meanwhile the pursuers set out after them, and found Belkis lying bushes. The severe beating they dealt out to him did not make him open his mouth. Jater thought, eventually, that the two meant to reach Edom, Belkis' native country, and that being so, perhaps Zevul had now escaped there alone. So he decided to send after him two of his brothers, and Abimelech with them, and considered thereby to have found a tricky scheme. The pursuers mounted their donkeys, early at dawn, and left Jater looking on after them from the window, his eyes contorted in a grin at the sight of the three going out to seize the slave, and at the sight of the two that went to kill the third riding with them, whenever they reached the far-away, uninhabited. country. And the days were those of the Feast of Passover, the feast of the Unleavened Bread.

25.

Although the pursuers were riding on donkeys and the runaway slave went by foot, they could not overtake him, and therefore, while passing through Shiloh, the holy town, they decided to see the priest, perchance he would tell them something helpful. It was a chilly morning, and drops of dew glimmered on the canvas sheets of the Tent of Congregation. No God-searching people, nor others, did yet gather at that hour before the entrance, and there was nobody, except a boy, sitting there half-asleep. It was Eli, the acolyte, who was busy these days writing out of the mouth of Pinechas, the High Priest, a bulky composition about Moshe and his love for the Negress. As they entered, they could see nothing at first, and only by and by, through the shiny spots on the polished surface of the copper implements, glittering in the semi-darkness could they also discern the face of the High Priest, who sat reclining on a mat of goat-hair in the corner of the tent. He was a short, baldheadedman, with a copious huge beard. The brothers bowed down before him, and told him of their errand and also who they were, putting a few coins before him on the table as well, but the priest did look neither at them nor at their coins, but at Abimelech, who remained standing at the entrance. The priest called out to him to come nearer. And while the two brothers stood embarrassed, Abimelech came near and stood by the priest. From that moment and till the end of the long conversation between the youth and the priest the two brothers were forgotten, and were as if they had never even existed.

26.

The first question the priest asked was, whether Abimelech had ever heard about Yaacov. But Abimelech knew and had heard only about Yaacov the Chuckler. "Listen to me, then," said the priest. "This Yaacov was the youngest of the sons, and the firstborn's name was Esau. And it so happened that Yaacov and not Esau was the one to win primogeniture and the blessing of his father, and that is why he had to run for his life, out of fear of his older brother. Be it known unto you, then, that not for the first time it happened then that the younger inherited the birthright of the firstborn; Yaacov's father, Yitzhak, already, was chosen by his father, Abraham, although he also was the younger, and his brother, Ishmael, the elder". "And what did happen to Yaacov, after his flight?" asked Abimelech. "Well," said the priest, "in his exile he married two sisters, who hated each other, and when they gave birth to sons, these could not stand each other either; the sons of the older sister, Leah, hated the sons of the younger sister, Rachel, and one day, in the meadows, they seized Joseph and decided to kill him. Simeon thought it best to hang him on a tree, Marelis advised to drown him in a river, but Levi persuaded them to sell him to the Ishmaelites and to see what his dreams would now be, and although an old woman went there by and warned them in the name of God not to commit a sin, they hardened their hearts and saw their deed through. "That is a funny story", said Abimelech. The priest looked at him intently. "You ought not to make light of the story," he said. "Imagine the sorrow of the father. But not that is the reason for my telling you this story. Joseph, then, was sold to the Ishmaelites, and they sold him in Egypt, but after many days, after his having been cast even into the pit and jail where various wonderful events befell him, he rose out of the pit, at God's mighty will, to greatness and became second in Egypt only to Pharaoh. He took into himself a wife, by whom he had two sons, the firstborn named Menasheh and the younger Ephraim. After a while old Yaacov met his son Joseph again. This latter asked him to bless his sons, rthe firstborn according to his precedence, and the younger according to his rights. But lo, behold that wonder – Yaacov chose to bestow his blessing on the younger one as if he had the priority. And so , all that had happened to Yaacov and Yitzhak, his forefathers, happened to Ephraim again." "Verily, I did understand your story, my lord," said Abimelech.

27.

"I know you would, understand my story," said the priest, and went on: "Although your seventy older brothers hate you, you will persist and survive, because God has chosen you." In a clear voice spoke the priest, but Abimelech's words were spoken, as was his wont, quietly and in silence, "This I will tell you," ..said the .priest. Seventeen years ago I sent a letter to Jerubaal your father in . which I ordered him to banish his bride, your mother, from his side. Not of my freewill it was that I told him to do thus, neither did I understand then the meaning of it, but now I do." "What is then the meaning?" asked-Abimelech. "God", said the priest, "wished the concubine to be sent away, that her son, born outside of lawful marriage, may live in poverty and need, that he be despised by his brothers and. be their laughingstock and derision and. he may hate them, in the end to become the strongest of all." "And why should God.want it to be so?" asked Abimelech quietly. "I shall tell you", answered the priest, "God has rejected the sons of Jerubaal, because they are not fit to reign." "Surely they do not perpetrate much evil, do they?" asked Abimelech, "That is", answered the priest, "because they have no power to do evil. But to do good they have no power either. They are neither cold nor warm, only unsavoury, and that is why God will vomit them out of his mouth." "But what does God expect of me?" asked Abimelech, "What one expects of you", answered the priest, "is hope. Because tremendous are the sources of good. in you, and so are also those of evil, and yours is to choose between them." "But if I choose evil?" asked Ahimelech, and the old man and the "But if I choose evil?" asked Ahimelech, and the old man and the youth looked into each other's eyes. And the old man answered: "Even so, my son, even so then it will he only according to the will of God." "If so", said Abimelech, let God do as he pleases, for me it is all the same."

28.

Those words ended the conversation, and the three men left the tent. The two brothers cursed the moment in which they were so foolish as to decide to ever enter it, and they called between themselves the priest an old babbling lunatic. They were riding now amidst a pleasant greenery, each of them caught in the web of his thoughts, and Abimelech immersed in his own. Who is that God, he asked, himself in whose name the priest had spoken? His name, as Abimelech knew very well, was Being.* But still, that very name was a mystery. Since aeons no man had pronounced that name, but said "Lord" instead. But what did it after all mean? There were those who assumed that the word meant He who exists for ever, He who is the essence of Being. Others said: He who expresses his wishes and thereby they come to exist, He who fulfills his commands and promises of life, for life. And again, there was a third solution; He who soares high in the air and moves over the surface of the mater. This explanation was very widely accepted, especially with the Ishmaelites. But there was also a fourth answer, according to which the name meant: He who declares and speaks his words. And a fifth: the Archer lord of the lightning Flash. Truly, in all these answers, thought Abimelech, there is something of the embarrassing, and there is no assurance that even one of them is true, and if so, if we cannot know really what is God, what may we know of his will, of what is good before him and what is bad. As a matter of fact, that seems to be the case.
*Jehova

29.

A few days later, at an hour when the declining sun paints red the clouds at the rim of the sky, the three men reached the Judean desert. In the East, then arose the moon, and the darkening rocks appeared like men put here an. there in ambush. The three looked for and found a cave and entered into it, they and their mules. They lit a campfire that cast shadows but could not cheer up with its paltry light the depth of the cave. Having eaten of what food they had brought with them, they lay down to sleep, but no one of them could close his eyes. Abimelech, his cot a step or two from the others, heard their whispers. Long ago he had already understood that once they came to a deserted place they will kill him, if he will not forestall them by killing them first. . And there they were now, in an uninhabited desert. He asked himself whether his life was really dear to him, or, perhaps, If it would not be better to take a nap now and to sleep, forever, and maybe, who knows, he may then meet in that world of eternal slumber his mother, most beautiful. And so he fell asleep, by and by, full of pleasure in his heart.