The Hammer: A Story of the Maccabean Times

by Alfred John Church

  CHAPTER XX.

  THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE.

  Azariah and Micah had been put under John, the eldest of the fivebrothers, in command of the force employed to blockade the garrison ofAcra. The night had passed quietly; the garrison had not attempted asortie, and had not even harassed the besiegers with a discharge ofmissiles. And when the morning came they seemed inclined to continue thesame inaction. From the high ground the two Jews looked down upon theTemple courts and saw the priests directing a crowd of eager helpers inthe work of cleansing the Sanctuary, and labouring diligently with theirown hands. The first task was to pull down the idol altar which had beenerected on the altar of burnt-offering. This was done in a fury of haste.The hands of the workmen could not, it seemed, move fast enough indestroying the abominable thing. The stones were carried out of the templewith gestures of loathing and disgust, and afterwards taken to the Valleyof Hinnom--unholy things to be cast away in an unholy place.

  But the stones of the holy altar itself had been polluted by thesuperstructure that had been erected upon them. What was to be done withthem? At least it was manifest that they could not stand where they were.Sacrifice could not be offered upon them. They were reverently detachedfrom the cement which bound them together, and then borne one by one to achamber of the Temple, where they were to be laid up till a prophet shouldarise who should show what was to be done with them. The first duty ofdealing with the altar completed, came the work of cleansing and repairingthe courts and chambers. The long, trailing creepers were pulled down; theweeds and shrubs were rooted out. The place was still a ruin, but themanifest signs of its desolation and abandonment were removed. So numerousand so eager were the labourers that for this part of the work a few hourssufficed. The task of reparation would, of necessity, be longer and moretedious.

  Azariah and Micah had been watching the work with perhaps a more absorbinginterest than was quite consistent with their duty of watching thegarrison, when suddenly one of the sentries blew an alarm. Scarcely had itsounded when a flight of arrows from the garrison of the fortress fellamong the besiegers. The Greeks had watched their opportunity, and whenalmost all eyes were turned on the work that was going on below, had senta volley among the ranks of the enemy.

  This sudden attack did no little damage. One or two of the patriots werekilled on the spot, several were seriously wounded; the others eithercovered themselves with their shields, a precaution which they ought notto have neglected, or sought refuge among the ruins.

  Azariah, though he had been caught a little off his guard, was notunprepared to deal with a manifestation of this kind. He had organized acompany of slingers, and he now ordered them to advance and clear the wallof its defenders. They knelt with one knee upon the ground, and coveredthemselves with their shields. Under this shelter they loaded theirslings. Then, rising rapidly at a preconcerted signal from theircommander, they sent a simultaneous and well-directed shower of leadenbullets on the defenders of the wall. These missiles, sent with a skilland a strength in which the Jewish slingers were unsurpassed, had amarvellous effect. In a moment the wall was cleared, except that here andthere along its length the dead and wounded might be seen. The survivorsdid not venture forth from shelter to carry them away. A fierce conflictfollowed. From the loopholes of the towers and from behind the battlementsthe Greek archers kept up the discharge of their arrows, and the Jewishslingers replied. No great damage was done on either side; but every nowand then a skilful aim at some exposed body or limb was followed by a cryof pain from the wounded man, and the cry was taken up by a shout oftriumph from the hostile force. In the course of the afternoon a stormcame on, with thunder and lightning and a deluge of rain. Before it hadcleared away the light had failed, and hostilities had perforce to besuspended.

  About the beginning of the second watch(16) Micah, who was making a roundof the sentries, heard the sound of something that seemed to fall heavilyupon the soft and plashy ground. The rain had ceased, and the sky hadpartially cleared; for a few minutes all was still; then Micah could heara sighing which was not the sighing of the wind. He followed the guidanceof the sound, and found a woman lying almost insensible upon the ground.He called one of the sentinels to help him, and together they carried herunder shelter, and brought torches, by the light of which they mightexamine her injuries. That she was stunned by the fall was evident, forshe did not speak, and when they attempted to move her she groaned withthe pain. When left alone she did not seem to suffer much, and they judgedit best to wait for the morning, administering meanwhile a little wine andwater from time to time.

  The next morning four of the soldiers were told off to remove her on alitter that had been constructed for the use of the wounded to a desertedhouse in the Lower City--and of deserted houses there was only too great achoice. As the bearers put down their burden on the way to take a briefrest a strange figure came up to the party. It was a woman, young andstill showing the remains of beauty, but with a miserably haggard look. Itwas easy to see from her uncertain gait and wandering eye that she was alunatic.

  Huldah had been for some time a well-known figure in Jerusalem, and herstory was of the saddest. She had been a servant in the house of Seraiah,and had been Ruth's own waiting-maid. Returning home from some errand onwhich she had been sent one day at the beginning of Apollonius's reign ofterror, she had been seized by the attendants of the newly-dedicatedTemple of Jupiter, and made a slave. Before many weeks had passed thecruel outrages to which she was subjected overthrew her reason. Thusbecome a trouble to her captors she was permitted to escape. Since thenshe had been accustomed to wander about the city. The horrors of the paststill haunted her, and the recollection of the abominable idolatries inwhich she had been forced to serve. At every pool of water and fountainshe would stay and wash. From every passer-by she would beg for somethingthat might serve for her cleansing: it was the one craving of her soul tobe rid of its defilement. For food or money she never asked; but a fewkindly souls in the city gave her enough to support life, and sometimeswould renew the garments, threadbare, but always scrupulously neat andclean, which she wore. Of these friends the kindest was Eglah, who had afellow-feeling for the sufferer, and who was always on the watch to atoneby her charitable deeds for what she believed to be the great offence ofher life.

  Huldah cast a glance at the litter in passing, and at once recognized inthe suffering woman her own benefactress. For indeed it was Eglah whomMicah had found under the fortress wall. The recognition made a marvellouschange in the poor maniac. It turned her thoughts in another direction.She ceased to dwell upon her own sufferings, and, for the time at least,reason regained its sway.

  She knelt down by the side of the litter, and kissed one of the hands thathung listlessly down. Then, rising to her feet, she arranged the cushionon which Eglah lay so as to make it more comfortable. That done, she badethe bearers take up their burden, made a gesture of dissent when they wereturning aside to the house to which they had been directed, and led theway to Eglah's own dwelling.

  The unhappy creature was positively transformed by the charge which hadthus been laid upon her. The most intelligent and thoughtful nurse couldnot have done better for her patient than did the poor distracted Huldah.A physician who was called in examined Eglah, and found that though shehad been sadly bruised and shaken, no bones were broken. Whether anyinternal injury existed was more than he could positively say; that timealone would show. Meanwhile careful attention was all that could be donefor her, and attention more careful than Huldah's it would be impossibleto imagine.

  The two priests who had found shelter in Eglah's house were naturallyamong those whom Judas had summoned to take part in the cleansing of theTemple when he made proclamation for all such as, being of the House ofAaron, were "of blameless conversation and had pleasure in the Law." Postsof special dignity were, indeed, conferred upon them, for both were men ofhigh reputation for sanctity and learning, which was not a littleincreased by the rom
antic story of their long seclusion and marvellousescape. Judas assigned them quarters near to his own, and was accustomedto have frequent recourse to their advice. They thus found themselvesalmost constantly employed, and were unable for several days to find anopportunity of inquiring what had happened to their protectress.

  When at last they found their way to the house Eglah had sufficientlyrecovered her strength to be able to rise from her bed. She was sitting,busy with her needle. Huldah was watching her with an intense look ofaffection that was infinitely pathetic.

  The poor woman told her story with a voice that again and again was brokenwith sobs.

  "When I was preparing your morning meal in the kitchen my husband, whom Ihad never before known to set foot in the place, suddenly appeared. I wasgreatly terrified lest he should ask for whom I was getting the foodready, but he was too much occupied with other things to notice it at all.'Eglah,' he said, 'you must come with me into the fort. Judas the Hammerhas broken our army to pieces. Lysias has fled before him, no one knowswhither, and within a few hours he will be in the city. I would have youhere, for the fort is scarcely a place for a woman, but I fear yourpeople. Haply they may slay you as having been yoked to a heathen. Mydarling,' he went on--and here poor Eglah's voice was choked with tears--'Ihave done ill for you, I fear; but I meant it for the best. And now, Ifear, you must cast in your lot with me. May the God whom you serve turnit for good.' So I gathered a few things together, and went with him. Ithought many times that we should scarcely have reached the fort alive,for the people cursed us as we went, the women especially casting manybitter words at me as one that had left her people to join herself to theheathen. But my husband had some six or seven soldiers with him; and theywere brave men and well armed. We had not been many hours in the fortbefore there began a battle between the garrison and the soldiers ofJudas. One of my husband's men, who had gone in a spirit of folly andvanity to show his courage, was struck down with a stone, and my husbandran forth to drag him in. And just as he was returning, another stone fromthe slingers struck him on the back of his head. It was about the ninthhour of the day when he was wounded, and he lived till the beginning ofthe second watch, but he never spoke again."

  Here the poor creature's story became confused and broken, and herlisteners could only guess what had followed. The tale of what followedmust be told for her. "'Ah!' said one of the soldiers, 'Glaucus has it. Hewill never move again, I reckon. A good fellow, but overstrict.' 'But howabout the Jewish girl whom he calls his wife?' said the other; 'I shalltake her.' 'Nay, nay; let there be fair play between us, comrade, as therehas always been. Why you more than I?' 'Because I was the first to speak.''Not so; 'twas I that first spoke of her.' 'Well, we won't quarrel,comrade. No woman is good enough to separate old friends. Let us cast thedice for her, and the man that wins shall stand treat for a flagon ofwine.' And then Eglah heard them cast the dice, and count the numbers--theywould have twenty throws a-piece, they said--and curse and swear when theythrew low. And when they had finished their dice-throwing they came in tosee how Glaucus fared; and just as they entered the chamber, he drew along breath and died. One of them put his hand upon his heart and said,''Tis all over with him; he will never toss a flagon or kiss a pretty girlagain.' And then he laid his hand upon Eglah's shoulder, and said, 'Cheerup; we will find another husband for thee as good as he.' But the firstsaid, 'Nay, Timon, leave her alone. The women are not like us. You mustgive them a few hours to cry.' 'Well, well,' said his comrade, 'you werealways soft-hearted. Let us come and have our flagon; there is no reasonwhy we should wait for that.'" The comrades went on their errand and leftthe widow alone with her dead husband. She kissed him, and cut off alittle curl of his hair, and then went forth on the wall--for the chamberin which he lay was in one of the wall-towers--and threw herself down tothe ground. It was better, she thought, to die than to sin again.

  "Daughter," said Joel, "you should thank the Lord that, without your owndoing, the tie that bound you to this heathen man is broken."

  "O sir," broke out the poor woman, "do not say so. I cannot find it in myheart to thank Him, though I do try to say in my heart, 'Thy will bedone.'"

  "Brother," said the old Shemaiah, "you are too hard upon her. 'Tis rightthat a wife should mourn for her husband, be he Jew or Greek. Before theLord, I had thought ill of her had she been of the temper that you wouldhave her."

  Eglah turned to the old man a grateful look. "O sir," she said, "you donot know how kind and good my Glaucus was. I never had an angry word fromhim. Nor did he ever hinder me from my prayers. Rather he would say when Iwent three times to my chamber to pray, 'Speak a word for me, wife, if youwill.' And he would oftentimes speak to me about my God, and say that heliked Him better than the gods in whom _he_ had been taught to believe.And I used to tell him stories out of the Book, and how the Lord haddelivered his people out of the land of Egypt, and had brought them intothe land which He sware to Abraham to give him. And he never mocked orlaughed, but listened with all his heart. And, sir, I do sometimes thinkthat if he had been spared to live longer, he would have become one of us.But he is dead, and I shall never, never see him any more."

  And the poor desolate widow burst out into a passion of tears, and threwherself prostrate on the couch, Huldah trying to comfort her, not withwords--which, indeed, she could not command, and which, in any case, wouldhave been of small avail--but with great demonstrations of love.

  After a while Eglah looked up, and turning to Shemaiah, in whose sympathyand charity she trusted, said, "O, sir, do you think that there is anyhope for him? Must he go into that dreadful Gehenna? For indeed he waskind and good, and never thought of any woman but his wife, and neverinjured one of our people, but would help them and defend them when hisfellows were rough with them. He was better than many Jews that I know. Isit not possible that God may have mercy upon him?"

  Joel was about to speak, but Shemaiah beckoned to him to hold his peace."My daughter," he said, "these things are too deep for us; but I wouldsay, be of good hope for him that is gone, seeing that he was such as yousay. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? To some He giveth muchlight, and to some but little; and He judgeth each according to that whichHe has given. Therefore I bid you be of good cheer."

  "And may I pray for him?" asked Eglah.

  "Surely you may, for no prayer, so that it come out of an honest heart andpure lips, but finds some fulfilment."(17)

  He rose and, giving her his blessing, departed, followed by Joel, whosenarrow intelligence was not a little startled by what his old companionhad said.