The spacious residence of Ioiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, was
ordinarily a rendezvous for the aristocratic circles of Jerusalem. The
fashion of the city seized the occasion of the home-bringing of his
daughter-in-law, the bride of Manasseh, and the feastings that
celebrated it, to throng his court and chambers with such gayety as had
not been seen since the return from the land of the Captivity.
The repute of Nicaso's beauty, the romance of such an alliance between a
priestly house of the Jews and the family of Sanballat, their ancient
enemy, set the tongues of all classes going. The multitude hailed the
event. They were wearied with the exclusiveness they had been forced to
maintain as respected their intercourse with neighboring people.
Shopkeepers were delighted, for, in the train of Sanballat's daughter,
came men and women from all surrounding tribes, and Jerusalem seemed
about to become again an emporium of trade, as in the days before the
Exile.
Marduk was solicited to open a bazaar in the chief street of the city
with the assurance of doing a thriving business in foreign stuffs, for
which the good people of Jerusalem had taken a sudden and violent fancy.
But for reasons best known to himself, the Phoenician merchant chose to
pitch his tents without the walls. Yet here he apparently did a lively
trade; for scarcely a day passed that did not bring a camel or two down
from the north, or a horseman up from Joppa on the coast. Marduk himself
seemed to catch the spirit of enterprise, and attended in person to the
details of business, which he had formerly left entirely to Eliezar.
Many of the traders, especially those who came from Phoenicia, and who
were presumably the agents of his business, he took to his own private
tent, or walked with them apart. It was rumored that he was about to
open new trade routes with Egypt and the East, which would centre in
Jerusalem. That Manasseh was so frequently with him gave plausibility to
the report that a great mercantile combination had been agreed upon in
which much Jewish wealth should be represented by the house of Ioiada,
the treasury of Sanballat by his son-in-law, Manasseh, and the heaviest
merchants of Tyre by Marduk, whose exhaustless genius and money-bags
were the inspiration of the enterprise.
But far different movements were beneath the surface of things. The
religious sentiment of Jerusalem had been shocked by the alliance of the
priestly house with that of the hated Samaritan. By many Nicaso was
called Jezebel, and Manasseh denounced as a traitor who aimed at playing
the part of a second Ahab. The venerable scribe, Ezra, seemed
broken-hearted over the defection of his favorite pupil. His lectures
upon the law became lamentations.
One day the three most notable men in all Jewry were together in the
hall of the high priest. There was the venerable pontiff, Eliashib, a
man whose broad and bland countenance was well in keeping with his
elegant attire. His whole bearing showed that he fully appreciated the
secular dignity of his position, if he did not feel the religious
solemnities of his sacerdotal office. He strode up and down the
apartment while he talked. Ezra, presuming upon the privilege of more
advanced years and feebleness, sat in his chair, scarcely raising his
eyes from the floor, except as now and then they shot the light of
intense conviction after some sage saying he had uttered. But the most
impressive figure was that of the Tirshatha, Nehemiah. He stood rigid as
the statue of some god; only turning his head to follow the movement of
Eliashib, whom he seemed to regard with mingled rage and scorn. Had he
drawn the short sword that hung at his side, he would not have been more
the impersonation of wrathful determination. The dispute of the men had
already been long, and without persuasion on either side.
"I shall submit to no such dictation in the affairs of my family," said
Eliashib, throwing wide his arms, as if to stretch to the utmost his
priestly robe, and the aristocratic authority that rustled in every
fold of it, and thus awe his opponents. "Be content with what you have
done: that I have allowed Tobiah, Prince of Ammon, to be driven from his
chambers at the temple. But know, haughty governor, that I move not
another step at your bidding."
"Alas!" cried Ezra, "that I should have lived to see the law of the Lord
openly broken with the countenance of the high priest, who should be its
most zealous guardian!"
"The law of the Lord!" retorted Eliashib. "Ay, as the light that comes
through yonder yellow curtain is the light of heaven; for so is the law
of the Lord stained by the interpretation of Ezra the Scribe. Did not
Moses marry the daughter of the priest of Midian, and Boaz marry the
Moabitish Ruth? Is Jehovah become a god of cruelty to drive out the
helpless women and children, because their blood is not like thine?"
Then fire seemed to flash from the figure of Nehemiah. He boldly
advanced, and, laying his hand upon the shoulder of the priest, glared
into his face as he said:
"The time for debate is past. Know you what I have done this very day?
On my way hither I came upon a band of these renegade Jews who have
married themselves to the women of Ashdod, Ammon, and of Moab, whose
children cannot even speak straight the language of our nation; and I
cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and
made them swear by God they would put away this spiritual harlotry. And
mark you, Eliashib, so will I chase from the gates the apostate
Manasseh, though he be of the blood of one who has debauched the high
priest's office."
Eliashib was furious, and hissed through his clenched teeth: "Not until
you have first become priest and sacrificed the high priest upon the
altar of your bigotry and madness. Pure blood! Nicaso's is as pure as
Nehemiah's, which has been tainted by the Persian's wine, as you were so
long cup-bearer to the crowned heathen. Go back to Susa and lord it over
the pages, but you shall not lord it over me. Stand guard, if you will,
at the harem curtains of Artaxerxes, but you shall not stand before the
curtains of Eliashib's household."
The audacity of the high priest checked for a moment the headlong rush
of the governor's passion. Or perhaps it was the training of the
diplomat that led Nehemiah to reply with more deliberation:
"My decision cannot be revoked. As the Lord lives! I will purge
Jerusalem; or, failing that, I return to Susa, and give back into the
hands of the Great King the commission as Tirshatha. Then what? O
blinded priest! Let Jerusalem perish again rather than become a harlot
city!"
"The Lord prevent!" cried Ezra, rising. The high priest dropped upon a
seat and sat a long time in silent musing. At length he rose, and spoke,
more to himself than to the listeners:
"Alas! that the keeping of Israel is in the hands of such men as we.
Our words are but wind, the hot wind of the desert, without the guidance
of the spirit of the Lord. I would think and pray. Leave me, friends,
before we further sin in our ignorant wrath"--and, gathering his robes
about him, Eliashib left the apartment.