The Fifth Mountain
Page 17
“Come back to this place when you have need of me. And look toward Jerusalem: I shall be there, seeking to give meaning to my name, Liberation. Our hearts are linked forever.”
“Was that why you brought me to the top of the Fifth Mountain? So I could see Israel?”
“So you could see the valley, the city, the other mountains, the rocks and clouds. The Lord often has his prophets climb mountains to converse with Him. I always wondered why He did that, and now I know the answer: when we are on high, we can see everything else as small.
“Our glory and our sadness lose their importance. Whatever we conquered or lost remains there below. From the heights of the mountain, you see how large the world is, and how wide its horizons.”
The boy looked about him. From the top of the Fifth Mountain, he could smell the sea that bathed the beaches of Tyre. And he could hear the desert wind that blew from Egypt.
“Someday I’ll govern Akbar,” he told Elijah. “I know what’s big. But I also know every corner of the city. I know what needs to be changed.”
“Then change it. Don’t let things remain idle.”
“Couldn’t God have chosen a better way of showing us all this? There was a time when I thought He was evil.”
Elijah said nothing. He recalled a conversation, many years before, with a Levite prophet while the two awaited death at the hands of Jezebel’s soldiers.
“Can God be evil?” the boy insisted.
“God is all-powerful,” answered Elijah. “He can do anything, and nothing is forbidden to Him, for if it were, there would exist someone more powerful than He, to prevent His doing certain things. In that case, I should prefer to worship and revere that more powerful someone.”
He paused for several instants to allow the boy to fathom the meaning of his words. Then he continued.
“Still, because of His infinite power, He chose to do only Good. If we reach the end of our story, we shall see that often Good is disguised as Evil, but it goes on being the Good, and is part of the plan that He created for humanity.”
He took the boy by the hand, and together they descended the mountain in silence.
THAT NIGHT, the boy went to sleep in his arms. As soon as day began to break, Elijah carefully removed him from his bosom so he would not awaken him.
He quickly donned the only garment he possessed and departed. On the road, he picked up a piece of wood from the ground and used it as a staff. He planned never to be without it: it was the remembrance of his struggle with God, of the destruction and rebuilding of Akbar.
Without looking back, he continued toward Israel.
FIVE YEARS LATER, ASSYRIA AGAIN INVADED THE COUNTRY, this time with a more professional army and more competent generals. All Phoenicia fell under the domination of the foreign conqueror except Tyre and Zarephath, which its inhabitants called Akbar.
The boy became a man, governed the city, and was judged a sage by his contemporaries. He died in the fullness of his years, surrounded by loved ones and saying always that “it was necessary to keep the city beautiful and strong, for his mother still strolled its streets.” Because of their joint system of defense, Tyre and Zarephath were not occupied by the Assyrian king Sennacherib until 701 B.C., almost 160 years after the events related in this book.
From that time on, Phoenician cities never recovered their importance and began to suffer a series of invasion—by the Neo-Babylonians, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Seleucids, and, finally, by Rome. Even so, they continue to exist in our own time because, according to ancient tradition, the Lord never selected at random the places He wished to see inhabited. Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos are still part of Lebanon, which even today remains a battlefield.
ELIJAH RETURNED TO ISRAEL AND CALLED THE PROPHETS together at Mount Carmel. There he asked them to divide into two groups: those who worshiped Baal, and those who believed in the Lord. Following the angel’s instructions, he offered a bullock to the first group and asked them to call out to the heavens for their gods to receive it. The Bible says:
“And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
“And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
“And there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.”
Then Elijah took his animal and offered it, following the angel’s instructions. At that moment the fire of heaven descended and “consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones.” Minutes later, a heavy rain fell, ending four years of drought.
From that moment, civil war broke out. Elijah ordered the execution of the prophets who had betrayed the Lord, and Jezebel sought him everywhere, to kill him. He fled, however, to the eastern part of the Fifth Mountain, which faced Israel.
The Syrians invaded the country and killed King Ahab, husband of the princess of Tyre, with an accidentally shot arrow that entered an opening in his armor. Jezebel took refuge in her palace and, following several popular revolts and the rise and fall of various governments, was captured. She preferred leaping from a window to giving herself up to the men sent to arrest her.
Elijah remained on the mountain until the end of his days. The Bible says that one afternoon, when he was conversing with Elisha, the prophet he had named as his successor, “there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”
Almost eight hundred years later, Jesus bade Peter, James, and John to climb a mountain. The Gospel according to Matthew relates that Jesus “was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.”
Jesus asks the apostles not to speak of this vision until the Son of Man be risen from the dead, but they reply that this will happen only when Elijah returns.
Matthew 17:10—13 tells the rest of the story:
Zd his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.
“Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”
MARIA CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN, PRAY FOR US WHO call on Thee. Amen.
About the Translator
CLIFFORD E. LANDERS is professor of political science at Jersey City State College and a premier translator of Latin American fiction. He has translated into English many of Brazil’s top writers, including Jorge Amado, Rubem Fonseca, and Chico Buarque. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAULO COELHO is an international bestselling author whose books—The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage, The Valkyries, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, and The Fifth Mountain—have sold more than 25 million copies in 117 countries and have been translated into 43 languages. He lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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ALSO BY PAULO COELHO
The Alchemist
The Pilgrimage
The Valkyries
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
CREDITS
Cover design by Doreen Louie
Cover photograph © 2000 by Colour Library
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN. Copyright © 2006 by Paulo Coelho. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment
of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2006 ISBN: 9780061843525
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Epigraph
Contents
Note from the Author
Prologue
Part I
"I Have Served a Lord Who Now...
He Walked for Many Hours, Taking...
Elijah Awoke The Next Day and...
Elijah Journeyed for Days Before...
Elijah's Presence Was Soon Noticed...
Little by Little Elijah Became...
At The Entrance to the Valley,...
In the Distance, in the Middle of...
Shouting Insults and Hurling...
After Much Time Had Passed,...
Part II
The High Priest Said the Prayers...
Akbar Would Go On Existing Even...
The High Priest Remained Atop the...
The Next Day, Elijah Met With...
"Elijah Still Lives," The Commander...
Two More Months Passed, and...
The Prisoner, Followed by An Ever...
The Lord Spoke Unto Moses:...
Elijah Continued Walking for Some...
He Was Awakened the Next Morning...
"Let'S Go," The Woman Told Her Son....
Elijah, The Woman, and the Boy...
"I'M Hungry and Thirsty," the Boy...
The Next Day They Awoke Early,...
The Boy and the Man Walked...
He Looked at the Boy, Who Now...
"Behold, O Lord, What Thou Hast...
The Next Day, Elijah and the...
Another Day Went by. Most of...
Elijah Awoke With a Start and...
The Woman Who Had Asked...
Two Nights Later, Elijah Gathered...
The Days Became Weeks, and...
Elijah Awoke Saying That Today He...
Caravans No Longer Came...
The Chief Trader Saw a Ragged...
"And It Came to Pass After Many...
From the Stone Where He...
Elijah and the Boy Arrived...
Five Years Later, Assyria Again...
Elijah Returned to Israel and...
Maria Conceived Without Sin,...
About the Translator
About the Author
Other Books by Paulo Coelho
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher