THE TEMPLE OF NABUCHAPTER V
THE TEMPLE OF NABU
If Bel-Marduk, “father of the gods,” reigned supreme in his temple opposite the royal palace, he was not without rival. Older than the “Lofty House” of Bel rose the venerableziggurat“E-Zida,” the “Eternal House” of Nabu of Borsippa, “god of wisdom.” Time was when Nabu had been the guardian god of all Babylonia, and his priests still refused to yield to the supplanting Bel more than a nominal concession of supremacy. Unlike the great city sanctuary, this temple in the quiet southern suburb sprang out of a great grove of nodding shade trees, girded about with pleasant gardens. A sluggish canal crept under the shadow of the terraces of the sacred tower, and mirrored the rambling brick buildings and leaf-hung walks of the temple college. For here at Borsippa was the most famous, as well as the oldest, university in all the fair land of the Chaldees. From time immemorial students had listened here to lectures on astrology, the science of omens, and the interpretation of dreams. Vainly had Avil-Marduk striven to raise his own temple-school to an equality withthat of Borsippa. Were not these paths beside the canal hallowed by three thousand years of academic tradition? Had not every famous demon-caster, for more generations than could be told, learned his art under the shadow of thisziggurat? Then again, while Bel was fanatical, Nabu was tolerant. Avil moved heaven and earth to ruin the Hebrews, while Imbi-Ilu, pontiff of Borsippa, was Daniel’s bosom friend, and his under priests openly declared that they hated Bel-Marduk quite as much as they did Jehovah. Of late the coldness between the two pontiffs had almost turned to open hostility; the king and court paid homage to Marduk, the city at large sent most of their gifts to Nabu. And within recent days Imbi-Ilu had more than once given offence even to the king by harbouring inside the temple precinct persons whose arrest had been urgently commanded; Belshazzar had fumed, and muttered threats, but Imbi was obdurate. There was the law,—graven on two stone tablets, by King Sargon I., a potentate three thousand years departed,—denouncing curses upon the body, goods, kinsfolk, and soul of the man or king who should dare to molest a suppliant that had once passed the boundary stones, which were set one furlong on every side of the enclosure of Nabu. The king had raged, but was helpless; not even the “son of Bel-Marduk,” as he boasted himself, could abolish a privilege like that.
But on the afternoon in question, none wouldhave dreamed that aught save studious repose brooded over quiet Borsippa. The lectures were ended. The boys in the lower school had flung away the tablets on which they had been copying the old dead language of the Akkadian classics.[3]Teachers and pupils had wandered forth to enjoy the cool of the evening. From the crest of the great temple-tower drifted the chant of the litany to Nabu:—
“Lord of Borsippa,Thy command is unchangeable like the firmanent.In the high heavens thy commandment is supreme!”
“Lord of Borsippa,Thy command is unchangeable like the firmanent.In the high heavens thy commandment is supreme!”
“Lord of Borsippa,Thy command is unchangeable like the firmanent.In the high heavens thy commandment is supreme!”
“Lord of Borsippa,
Thy command is unchangeable like the firmanent.
In the high heavens thy commandment is supreme!”
So the chant had risen for four thousand years, each evening; so it would be repeated, unless all omens were profitless, for as many more. Dynasties might come and go,—the worship of Nabu endured forever!
Upon the housetop of one of the larger buildings, close by the gate of the wall enclosing the sacred precinct, two men in deep discussion were seated. The roof-tiles were covered with soft carpet, a yellow canopy stretched overhead, there were cushioned stools and divans—a cool and pleasant spot to lounge and rest.
But the two were not lounging; their talk had lasted long. The one, Daniel, had drawn his stool close beside the couch of the other, and was speaking earnestly.
“We have debated before, we debate again,—to little profit. You have been a true friend, Imbi-Ilu; the difference in our faith has never stood betwixt us. You have done what you could to abate the persecution of my unfortunate people,—in vain, but I thank you.”
The high priest looked concernedly upon his friend. He was an eagle-visaged, majestic man, who bore his years lightly, and whose white locks sprang out all around his forehead, like the mane of a lion.
“It is as you say,” he answered soberly, “yet I deserve no praise. Avil-Marduk urges on Belshazzar against the servants of Jehovah, as being the weakest of the gods opposed to the supremacy of Marduk. Soon he will try to crush Nabu himself. I have acted in self-protection. But this is old chaff; all the wheat was long since winnowed out of it.”
“Well do I know that,” replied the Hebrew, bitterly; “we are being pushed to bay, you Babylonians as well as I. Avil-Marduk has made the king entirely his tool; almost I think he seeks the throne himself, nought less.”
Imbi nodded gloomily. “I believe you;” then, a shade more lightly, “but you, O Daniel, are under some greater constraint than distant anxiety for your people. By your own god, whom I much reverence, tell me truly, what brings you now to Borsippa? Since you saved my life, with those of the other wise men, because we could not reveal toNebuchadnezzar his dream, have we not been sworn comrades, in good and in ill? Speak freely. Your wish?”
“Your friendship may be indeed tested,” quoth the other, still soberly; “the king is none too much your friend to-day. If you grant my wish, he will neglect no occasion against you.”
“By Nabu!” cried the pontiff, affecting carelessness he did not feel, “you interest me. Tell it out. But not yet.” He snapped his fingers loudly; a white-robed servitor appeared. “This way, boy! Bring my Lord Daniel the oldest and coolest of the wine that came yesterday from Larsam, and a platter of honey cakes. He has driven far, and is weary.” Then to Daniel, “No excuses. No sorrow is doubled by a cup from my own vineyard.”
“Another time,” remonstrated the minister. “I have not come hither to make merry; I must be back to Babylon with all haste.”
“Not sleep in Borsippa? Your little goddess Ruth will not weep her sight away in your absence?”
“Ruth!” Daniel had started at the name; but, as if there were an omen in the word, there sounded a sudden rumbling and jarring in the brick-paved road outside the temple precinct, the noise of a heavy carriage at a headlong speed, the cracking of a whip, shoutings and cursings, all rising together. When before had a like din roused the peaceful suburb? Imbi sprang to the parapet and stared across in wonder.
“God of Borsippa,” he swore, “have we a chariot charge!”
The clamour swept nearer, broken now by a yell of keenest pain, followed by a great shout from the younger priests and students watching from below.
“Nabu save him! The wheel has crossed his body!”
“Eunuchs! The king’s eunuchs! They violate the sanctuary!” bawled many more, with a scamper of feet through the gateway.
“In Jehovah’s name, what is this!” cried Daniel, leaping up beside Imbi; but the pontiff had just time to clutch at his friend, as he tottered almost in a swoon. The noise below grew sevenfold.
“Down! He has smitten Mermaza!”
Imbi was again at his post. A closed carriage had lumbered in at the gateway, the horses panting and steaming. The pontiff started in turn, when he saw a young man leaping from the driver’s platform, still clutching tightly his long whip.
“Isaiah the son of Shadrach, and lifting Ruth the Jewess from the carriage! Why this tumult? Some fearful deed!”
The minister had recovered and stood at the pontiff’s side. He was again self-possessed. “Let me know with what the Lord God has visited me,” was all he said, and waited silently, as a breathless young priest rushed up to his superior, never so much as salaaming.
“Master! a frightful outrage. The royal eunuchshave pursued these fugitives past the boundary stones to our very gates. They attempted violence, and now clamour without, demanding their prey!”
Imbi turned very deliberately, took his white peaked tiara from the divan, and set it on his head.
“Gross sacrilege, indeed, Merdovah; impossible that his Majesty should authorize such violence!”
More priests and students were howling in the yard below: “Away with the eunuchs! To the canal with them! Avenge the insult!”
“Master,” remonstrated the messenger, “except you quiet the temple folk, expect a riot. They are maddened and furious.”
Imbi leaped upon the divan beside the balcony. “Below there, silence! What is this tumult?” The voice of the superior produced instant stillness.
“You there, Hasba, speak for all. Why is this carriage here, and these eunuchs?”
The priest addressed, a gaunt, athletic man, stepped forth from the crowd of fellows clustered around the gate.
“Why it is here, I know not, but I saw this,—the carriage approaching at topmost speed from Babylon, and many of the royal eunuchs pursuing on foot, crying loudly and calling to passers-by to aid. When they passed the boundary stone, the carriage slackened, as being in safety; and we looked to see the eunuchs halt. Not so,—they impiously followed after, and two snatched at the heads of the horses. Isaiah the Jew flogged themwith his whip. The wheel passed over one; nor did my Lord Mermaza escape the mire. They are without the gate and still threatening.”
“They may well threaten,” spoke Daniel, hoarsely, at the pontiff’s side, “for the king seeks Ruth for his harem. I came to Borsippa to ask sanctuary in her behalf. Be your god Jehovah or Nabu, fail not now!”
The civil-minister was very pale, but Imbi-Ilu flashed back proudly, “If I yield to Mermaza and his vermin, let the ‘Eternal House’ find other master.” Then he turned again to those below. “This is no common sacrilege. Who is this crying so shrilly, ‘Entrance’?”
“The master of the eunuchs himself. Shall we not buffet him to death?”
“Not so; admit him, but none other. Bring him here upon the housetop, with Ruth the Jewess, and Isaiah. Let them answer face to face before me.”
In a moment a bevy of priests had ushered three persons before their superior: Isaiah, with flushed face and eyes that still darted fire, Ruth, whose cheeks were scarce less white than her dress, and the “very supreme” chief eunuch. The last was sadly lacking in dignity, for his purple-embroidered robe was rent and mud-splashed, and across his forehead spread the long stripe where the lash had marked him. As Ruth and he confronted one another, she shrank in dread behind her betrothed; but the scowls and muttered menaces of the priests about made even the venturesomeeunuch cautious. There was an awkward silence before Imbi spoke.
“Well, my Lord Mermaza, has it slipped your mind that there is a certain law, old as theziggurat, concerning the rights of sanctuary of the precinct of Nabu?”
Mermaza’s perpetual smile had become a very forced grin indeed; he looked downward, without replying.
“And is it not also true,” went on the other, haughtily, “that whosoever transgresses the right of the god incurs the wrath of all the host of heaven? He is ‘devoted,’ given to Namtar the plague-demon, and her fiends; his life forfeit, his soul cast into Sheol. Is it not thus, my lord?”
Mermaza had recovered enough wits to attempt an answer.
“Right, most reverend pontiff. But I seek no fugitive criminal. In performance of my duties I pursue one of his Majesty’s runaway slaves, who can claim no right of sanctuary.”
“A slave of the king? Where? We will never shelter such!” And Imbi stared about in well-affected astonishment.
Mermaza fumbled in his bosom, and produced a small clay cylinder, which he handed to Imbi, bestowing at the same moment a gleeful leer upon Ruth.
“His Majesty’s own seal—read.”
The pontiff read aloud deliberately:—
“Belshazzar, ‘King of Sumer and Akkad,’ to Mermaza, ‘Master of the Eunuchs’: You are commanded at the first convenient season to seize, and take to the royal harem, a certain maid, one Ruth, the daughter of Daniel the Hebrew. And hereof do not fail, on peril of your head.”
“Belshazzar, ‘King of Sumer and Akkad,’ to Mermaza, ‘Master of the Eunuchs’: You are commanded at the first convenient season to seize, and take to the royal harem, a certain maid, one Ruth, the daughter of Daniel the Hebrew. And hereof do not fail, on peril of your head.”
Imbi examined the document the second time, and handed it back to the eunuch with a salaam of ironical reverence.
“Noble friend,” quoth he, with mock politeness, “explain, I pray you. In what part of this warrant does his Majesty command you to set at naught the right of sanctuary, and commit gross sacrilege?”
But Mermaza, beneath whose veneer of urbanity lay a hasty and arrogant temper, answered with rising gorge:—
“This is no answer, priest; obey the king! Do you refuse to surrender the wench? Think well before you reply—the king’s wrath—”
“Daniel,” remarked Imbi, turning his back on the eunuch, “is it your desire that your daughter go to the palace?”
“By all you revere, by our bonds of friendship, no!” The Jew started to fall on his knees, imploring. But Imbi faced Mermaza, with a lordly gesture.
“Go back to the palace, and say that I will send Ruth the daughter of Daniel hence, only on her father’s personal or written command. Low indeed is Nabu sunken if at barking of hounds of your litter he were to turn suppliants away!”
“The slave of the king—keep her at your peril!”threatened Mermaza, growing desperate, for his position was anything but enviable.
“A slave? When before in the royal harem? Where is the bill of sale from her father? Is she not freeborn?”
“She is a Jewess,—despiser of Nabu!” cried the eunuch, launching his last shaft. A yell of derision from all the priests answered him.
“Friend,” answered Imbi, smoothly, “you are so dear a companion to Avil-Marduk andhereverences Nabu so exceedingly, that these words drop indeed fitly from your lips.”
Mermaza swung about and faced Daniel and Isaiah.
“I see the pontiff is mad,” he shouted, his thick cheeks reddening. “Do you Jews hear reason. For this resistance to the royal decree you shall both rot in the palace dungeons unless the girl is yielded, and that instantly.”
Ruth had started forward, outstretching her hands.
“Not that, not that, O my father! Say you are willing. I will go.”
But Imbi-Ilu sprang between the eunuch and the Hebrews.
“And I, high priest of Nabu of the ‘Eternal House,’ declare that only as you take oath with all the gods to witness, that Daniel and Isaiah shall be in nowise molested in this matter, will I consent to withhold a criminal charge against you of extreme impiety and deliberate sacrilege. The crime isnotorious—twenty witnesses. Let Belshazzar himself save you, if I sow this tale of the outrage done the god, through Babylon.”
There was a stern menace in the pontiff’s voice that sent all Mermaza’s bravado trickling out through his finger-tips. The unfriendly ring of faces about added nothing to his courage. Twice he faltered, while speech choked in his throat. His face was swollen with mortification at his blunder. “Will you swear, toad?” croaked Hasba, at his side; and Mermaza gasped out thickly, “I will swear.”
“Good, then,” was Imbi’s dry comment; “but let us go down to the ‘holy room’ of the temple. There you shall lay your hands on the ark of the god, and take your oath. I spare no precaution, in taking a pledge of such as you.”
The priests swept their victim down the stairs. The three Hebrews were left alone on the housetop, looking one upon another—at first in silence; then a great and grievous cry arose from Daniel:—
“Ah! Lord God of my fathers—must I, who have served Thee so long, see my one child brought to this!”
He opened his arms wide; and Ruth fled into them, there to be locked fast. It was a moment when Isaiah knew he might do and say nothing. He stared vacantly across the parapet, counting the herd of dun-brown sheep a countryman was driving past the temple gate. The sheep would be butcheredto-morrow, but they shambled on with never a thought save for the little patches of grass that thrust through the chinks in the pavement. The sheep were happy, but he, Isaiah, the young man, whose heart was thrilled with high and holy things, with visions of the Great King and of His awful throne,—he was beyond words miserable! Darker, darker grew his thoughts; but the voice of Daniel recalled him.
“Isaiah, my weakness is passed. The Lord who saved your father and Meshach and Abed-nego from the flame of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace,—He is our refuge still. We must trust and bear. And not bear only. There is a deed for you to do this night. You have risked much to-day: will you face peril yet again?”
“You know I will walk through death at your least bidding, O my father!”
Daniel put Ruth gently away, and taking Isaiah by the arm, led him beyond her hearing.
“I told you before, I had one last weapon against Belshazzar; but scruples of loyalty restrained me. Afterthis,” with a weary smile, “all fealty truly ends. Hearken now to each word. You must be all resources to-night. You know the king gives a betrothal feast in the Hanging Gardens, in honour of the Persian princess. All the ministers and captains are invited saving myself—sure sign of the royal disfavour. You must contrive to enter the Gardens after the drinking has made the guards negligent,when you can shun discovery. After the wine has set the feast in confusion, seek out Darius the Persian envoy. God must aid you to have words with him alone. You must act to-night; for though Mermaza’s oath may delay his revenge a little, none can tell when the stroke may fall, and we be helpless in prison or as fugitives. Tell Darius that I, Daniel, who know all the king’s secrets, though they think it not, say that the treaty he makes with Belshazzar is a snare for the feet of Cyrus. The hand of Atossa was asked to lull him into security. Belshazzar negotiates with Amasis the Egyptian for a league against Persia, and Babylonish agents scatter sedition in Media and Carmania. Belshazzar is collecting troops and munitions. His bolt will fall as lightning from a smiling sky.”
The younger Jew was startled indeed. “Jehovah Omnipotent! I did not dream this, that Belshazzar’s and Avil’s perfidy could sink so deep!”
Daniel laughed aloud at his simplicity.
“When you have my years, O Isaiah, you will have sounded the depths of many seas of guile, and never marvel. You are young and trustful. Alas, that you must grow wise! But go now, before Mermaza returns to the palace. Our persons are safe for the moment: and Ruth can find shelter so long as Imbi-Ilu is our friend. But for true deliverance, Cyrus’s gratitude and the Persians’ might,—the Persians who worship the one God like ourselves,—these are the only hopes.”
Isaiah drove away from the temple that evening in a strange mingling of terror, yet of hopefulness. The warm touch of Ruth upon his cheek was still thrilling him, the sweetness of her kiss was on his lips. Was all lost while he was strong and free? And with the fate of his people and of those he loved resting upon him, where was the moment in which to dare to dream of failure? Darius had declared himself his friend; Darius, he felt, he scarce knew why, was already Belshazzar’s foe. Why might not Jehovah raise up this prince as a second Moses, to lead His people out of their new and more grievous bondage?