JONAH

I

In those days there were prophets in Israel. They lived in the desert,

beyond the Jordan, in caves and in rude huts made of clay and mats.

There were many holy men among them, whose ears had been pierced by the

sweetness of God’s voice and whose eyes had been dazzled by the fiery

appearance of His angels. They were like the saints to whom in later

times the Virgin Mary used to come with eyes melting with tenderness,

and who used to perform such astonishing miracles in the desert near

Thebes. Theirs was an holy and severe life, made anxious by the sins of

the Jews, whose punishment they prophesied in tones of great bitterness

and haunting sadness.

Surrounded by gloomy rocks, they beheld visions, and conversed with

angels. They shared their meals with the lions of the desert, with

such birds and beasts as foxes, gazelles, snakes, mice, and ravens.

Many of these were holy beings; more than human, but less than divine,

they were obliged to eat, and devoured with shy and reverent looks the

food set apart for Jehovah.

It was a life of poverty, of danger, and of glory. In the silence

of the desert the prophets drew together in an austere community.

Those returning from lands across the Jordan brought back news to the

Schools. It was said that Amos of Tekoa had spoken at Bethel; standing

in the presence of King Jeroboam, surrounded by the proudest nobles,

he had prophesied the doom of Israel. Two angels attended him while he

spoke, and collected the drops of moisture which fell from his brow.

Thereafter an earthquake, followed by a drought, destroyed the crops of

Israel and Judah.

When Jonah, the prophet, heard this news, he left his hut in Golan, and

taking his stick and a gourd filled with water, set his face southward

toward the Land of Tob. He walked from dawn to dusk; his thoughts were

grave, and his expression serious. As evening fell he found himself

beside a little pool in the desert; here he sat down to rest. The sky

was green with early night; the evening star, smaller than the moon

and silver as a distant sea, sailed above Sharon. Before him lay the

desert, heavy with silence, drenched with the cold dew of evening.

Jonah shivered, and drew his cloak closer about him.

As he sat there, his head bowed upon his hand, a fox came out of a hole

and, seeing Jonah, exclaimed,

“There is the man of God.”

Touched and astonished at this mark of recognition, Jonah offered the

little animal some meal with which he had expected to make his own

supper. Then the fox lay down beside Jonah and remarked,

“I am not a theologian. So I do not understand the wars of Judah and

the other tribes. However, I would like to ask you something. When I go

down into my hole, God goes down after me. What I want to know is this:

is He a Jew, or a fox?”

Jonah answered as he had been taught in the Schools: “God has the

appearance of a man. From His beard, which extends to His feet and is

divided into thirteen portions, fall drops of gracious balm; and from

His mouth proceed the names of all things. His angels also appear as

men, with long white wings, and faces shining with light.” And he gazed

at the little animal in a kindly manner.

“Well,” said the fox, “a beard or a tail, that is merely a matter of

direction.” So saying, he put his head down between his paws, and fell

asleep. Jonah also slept, watched by the stars, and by an angel, who

said to him just before dawn:

“Arise, Jonah, and hasten to Bethel. Say to King Jeroboam, ‘Against the

insolence of Hamath, Israel shall prevail once again.’”

Jonah immediately awoke, and gave thanks to God. Then he took leave

of the fox, who said to him, “I dreamed that God was a raven, and was

giving me some sharp pecks with His beak.”

In the gray light of dawn Jonah started toward the hills which guard

the Jordan. He breathed the pure air of the desert, sweet with desert

flowers, fresh and cold as water; he lifted his face to the western

sky, into which night was retreating like a storm; and his heart sang.

“God will redeem Israel through me,” he thought.

At noon he entered the valley of Jezreel, on the other side of the

Jordan. There the fig trees were in blossom, and their scent mingled

with almonds in the air. At every village he saw roadside altars

above which were erected rude copies of the golden bulls of Tyre. The

afternoon sun cast sinister shadows behind them, and Jonah averted his

face as he went by.

He stayed that night near Joseph’s Well, in the cottage of a poor

herdsman. A faint and holy glow illuminated one corner of the kitchen

where the prophet lay, while the wide wings of seraphim, like slow

birds, beat overhead through the darkness. In the morning the herdsman,

who had not slept all night, hurried out to purify himself in the river

from such close contact with divinity.

When Jonah arrived at Bethel, he went at once to the house of the High

Priest Amaziah. A servant admitted the prophet, dusty with travel, into

the presence of his master. And Jonah gazed proudly and without fear at

the priest.

Amaziah, High Priest of Israel, was a churchman; therefore he disliked

confusion. For that reason also he detested the prophets who he felt

were unable to understand the problems of administration. Seated upon

a bench of ivory, he gazed wearily at Jonah before addressing him in

these terms:

“I do not know your name, but from your gloomy countenance covered with

hair, I can see that you are a prophet from Golan, or the Land of Tob.

And I suppose that you have come, like all the others, to tell me that

God admires Judah more than Israel. In that case I must say to you what

I said to Amos: ‘Go south, to Jerusalem, and prophesy in Judah, because

what you have to say does not amuse me.’”

Jonah replied simply, “I must speak at Bethel, because that is what God

told me to do.”

But he added that he did not intend to prophesy another earthquake, as

Amos had done. “What I have to say,” he declared, “concerns Israel,

and Hamath in the north.”

At this the High Priest looked pleased. “So,” he said; “well, that is

better.” And he regarded Jonah with a kindlier expression.

But presently he burst out again in an exasperated voice: “You prophets

do not understand the difficulties of my position. You imagine that

because I am High Priest, I should be able to control the forms in

which the people of Israel worship the Divinity. Nothing is more

improbable, seeing that every one has his own idea of what is truly

noble.”

To this outburst Jonah replied, with dignity: “Still, the God of the

Jews does not look like a bull, or a little dove. It is a sin to

worship such things.”

Amaziah gave utterance to a long sigh. “My son,” he said gently, “I

see that you are like all prophets, which is to say that you are

impractical. Otherwise you would know that it is impossible not to

worship the Divinity in some form or other. And since He refuses to

reveal Himself in His proper form, one is left to imagine Him in any

form one pleases. That is a great mistake, in my opinion; but it is

God’s mistake, not mine. I cannot help it if the inhabitants of Dan,

who are mostly farmers, admire the dignified mien of a bull, or if the

villagers of Asher, who are lazy and uxorious, choose to worship the

Divine Power in the form of a dove.”

“The dove and the bull,” declared Jonah, who remembered what he had

studied in the Schools, “belong to the moon and to the sun. God, having

created man in His Own image, necessarily has the form of a man. He

is bearded; and His face shines with wisdom and benevolence. He also

created the animals, but He created them in the image of animals. That

is the important thing to remember in dealing with such matters.”

But Amaziah replied that Jonah was an idealist. “You will understand,”

he said, “when I tell you that idealism is something to which close

attention to the disputes and duties of the Temple does not dispose me.

We churchmen are obliged to be practical. The important thing is that

there should be uniformity. And that is impossible where one person

must be right, and the other wrong. I am not here to help men argue,

but to help them agree. Many trees bear fruit upon this earth, my

friend; the leaf is different, but a tree is a tree. So let us all be

right, or at least as many of us as possible.”

Jonah remained silent and gloomy; he respected the Law, and did not

know how to reply to Amaziah. The old priest regarded him in a more

genial manner, and continued:

“However, these pastoral matters need not concern you. You are a

prophet, not a priest, a messenger, not an interpreter. That is

something you prophets could learn to your advantage.

“Tell me what tidings you bear the King. You speak of Hamath, and the

Aramæans; is it possible that you know of some conspiracy in the north

of which your rulers are ignorant?”

Jonah replied that as far as he knew, the Aramæans were peaceful, and

their army was unprepared. “An angel appeared to me in a dream,” he

declared. “This angel was more beautiful than I can say, and had long

white wings which kept up a slow movement in the air. I could wish that

the women of Israel had such wings, which lend to the figure a charm

that cannot be described. The beauty of that angel caused my heart to

overflow with grief and longing.”

And he remained silent, lost in painful memories. He resumed:

“In a voice of heavenly sweetness I was told to arise, and bidden to

say to King Jeroboam, ‘Against the insolence of Hamath, Israel shall

prevail once again.’ When I awoke I found on the ground a white feather

which shone like snow. I picked it up, and put it beneath my cloak.”

And he held out to Amaziah a white feather about a foot long.

“Here is the proof,” he said, “of what I have told you.”

Amaziah reverently received the angelic token, which he put to his nose

and carefully tasted with his tongue, before remarking, “It does not

surprise me, seeing the marvelous economy of Heaven, that the wings

which support the angels should be not unlike those on which the snowy

herons sail so majestically above the hills. However, as the king and

his nobles might consider this feather a trifle too light to support

so august a body as an angel through the air, let me place this sacred

relic in the Tabernacle, and give you, instead, the feather of an

eagle, which has a more important look. Do not draw back in dismay, my

son; in dealing with simple minds, a certain amount of ingenuity is

needed. It is a characteristic which has distinguished the Jews in the

past even more than their valor. I have only to remind you of David’s

treaties with the Philistines, and the manner in which the heroic Jael

divorced the head of Sisera from his Canaanite body. It is upon such

stratagems as these, added to the irresistible power of the Lord, that

the glory of Israel depends.”

He sat for a brief space, his head sunk forward upon his breast in

meditation. Presently he said thoughtfully:

“After all, there is nothing like a war to draw together a nation’s

diverse elements. The trouble with Israel is that her wars have been

so often civil wars. Civil wars are of no value, since they destroy

uniformity; they are, besides, inclined to be a little half-hearted,

seeing that the vanquished do not expect to be plundered, raped, and

murdered with the same methodical energy by their own people as by

strangers.”

And he added humbly, “Is it likely that God in His infinite wisdom

should see this any less clearly than I do?”

When Jonah had supped on lettuce, olives, and wine, he left his host

and went out to walk in the city. The night was cold, and the odor of

the streets mingled with the sweet aroma of earth. He filled his lungs

with the clear air of the hills, stained by the smoke of fires and the

sour smell of wine; he heard about him in the gloom the lazy hum of the

city, the faint, sharp chime of voices, far-off cries, the crowing of a

cock, the creak of a water-wheel.

He thought, “Here is thy home, O Israel, in the land of thy God.”

And he gazed in silence and with a heart overflowing with reverence at

the sky, blue with night, above the roofs of Bethel.

In the morning, pale but confident, he presented himself before the

king.

Seated upon a golden throne in his palace of broadstone, his hair and

beard glistening with oil, and surrounded by proud and bearded nobles,

Jeroboam listened with attention to what the prophet had to say.

Then he asked for the opinion of Amaziah, who stood at the side of the

throne. The old priest hesitated a moment, before replying in a grave

voice:

“Who am I to question the will of the Almighty? A war against Aram is

a holy war, since God Himself desires it. This prophet speaks in a

voice of heavenly wisdom. I foresee that your soldiers will rush with

impetuous enthusiasm upon a foe by no means prepared to defend himself.

I shudder to think of such carnage. However, your commands are mine, O

King.”

So saying, he withdrew. Jeroboam then passed around a large feather

given him by Jonah as proof of his prophetic mission. A noble who

looked after the royal falcons remarked,

“This indeed must be the feather of an angel, for it is larger than

that of an eagle, which it favors in color, although it is more divine

in appearance.”

The king next asked for the opinion of Ahab, who owned a great deal of

land bordering on the country of Aram. This prince, whose beard curled

like an Assyrian’s, spoke without hesitation in favor of war. In a dry

voice he declared,

“It stands to reason that God would prefer His own people to have the

pasture lands which obviously belong to them, according to geography,

history, and the opinion of every right-minded person. I only wonder

that He did not think of it before.”

The young prince Absalom, who had more than fifty wives, exclaimed in

ringing tones,

“I am in favor of war, to teach these barbarians to know and worship

the God of the Jews.” And he held up his sword, the handle of which was

carved to represent the Adonis of Sidon, to whose inexhaustible vigor

the prince sacrificed, every spring, a ram and a cock.

This speech of Absalom’s was received with acclaim by the nobles. The

next day the armies of Israel, led by the king, and accompanied by more

than a thousand priests of Adonis, Astarte, Kemosh, Melcarth, the local

Baalim, and the Holy Ark, set out for the frontiers of Aram.