Be strong and courageous and do God’s work.
Adah wished she could recite God’s challenge without her stick trembling, but then she had never defied a prophetess before.
25
Later that afternoon, Adah hurried to her storeroom to prepare a salve for Telem’s wound. Her fists balled tight any time she remembered Noadiah’s slander of Nehemiah. Enemies grew more numerous by the day. Enemies of her God and of her people. Why did God allow this opposition? She sighed as she dodged slow-moving city dwellers. Maneuvering around a woman, she accidentally bumped her arm.
“Forgive me,” Adah said with a quick half-turn.
“Adah?” A woman spoke her name with breathy elation.
How long had it been since someone had called out to her with such enthusiasm, happy to be in her presence? This day she would answer anyone who did not assault her with curses. Adah stopped and turned around.
Beulah’s daughter stood before her, thinner than Adah remembered, clutching a small satchel under one arm.
“Leah. You’re back.” Adah wrapped her arms around the girl. The drape of Leah’s tunic gave way under the force of Adah’s embrace.
“Yes, and before my mother gives birth.” Leah held onto Adah. “Your father lowered our taxes and refunded the difference for the last few months. The sum was enough to pay the merchant I served.”
Consumed with pride at her father’s generosity, Adah felt as though she had grown a foot. She stepped back, untangling herself from Leah’s arms and the overstuffed satchel that could rival a boulder for weight. Oh, if only Othniel would return and call to her from the street. “I am glad you are here. Your mother must be unaware of your arrival, for the neighborhood is peaceful.”
“She hasn’t seen me.” Leah straightened her head covering. Tears glistened in the young girl’s eyes. “We will always be grateful to the household of Shallum for the mercy you have shown us. I am blessed to be home with my family.”
If only they had shown their mercy sooner. “Be grateful to God.” Adah clasped Leah’s calloused hands. “He has not forsaken us or our city.”
Leah nodded. “I will. I almost did not recognize my own city. The wall has grown so tall.”
“On most of our backs.” Adah smiled at her truth. “Go now and surprise your mother. Shalom my friend.”
“Shalom.” Leah’s lips quivered as she hurried off.
Watching the girl return to her birthplace, Adah’s chest ached as if a thistle had burrowed into her heart. Why couldn’t Othniel have lived in the district overseen by her father? She glanced down the street hoping Othniel’s jovial swagger and exuberant face would come into view. It didn’t. Mercy didn’t reign in Rephaiah’s heart. Not that she had witnessed anyway.
Adah continued on toward her workshop. She would mix a bit of lavender oil and hyssop and prevent the hint of an infection from her mason’s wound. Deep in reflection, she opened the door to her storeroom. Sprigs of myrtle lay unbundled on her table. The leaves needed to be stacked before she began pouring oils. She hurried toward a cupboard for thread.
Coughs rasped from the corner of her storeroom.
Adah whipped round as a chill spiked through her body.
She was not alone.
26
“Governor!” Adah flattened a hand to her breast. Her heart felt as though it would fly across the room. She grasped her work table and willed her knees to hold her steady. “What are you doing in here?”
“Forgive me for startling you.” Nehemiah strolled closer.
The boom of Adah’s heart quaked her robe. She rolled her shoulders back and stepped away from her table, testing her knees to see if they were steadfast. How could she blame the governor for waiting in her storeroom after the public berating he received from the prophetess? Adah liked hiding in this room with its sweet, musty smells.
Nehemiah halted a few feet from her and rocked on his sandals. “I have something that belongs to you, and your mother told me I would find you here. I expected you’d arrive before me.”
“I was delayed.” She swallowed the lump lodged in her throat. “A neighbor’s daughter has returned from her servitude. My father lowered their taxes and refunded the overpayment. We greeted each other in the street.” She pointed in the direction of the corner where she and Leah had embraced as if the governor of Judah needed to know the exact location.
“Ah.” Nehemiah grinned. “I dream about seeing our people fill this city once again.”
“You would think our prophetess would have the same dream.”
She offered Nehemiah a stool. He refused.
Nehemiah picked up a clove from a bowl and rolled it between his fingertips. “One prepares for opposition from enemies, but not from one’s own ranks. I do not know Noadiah’s reasoning for trying to intimidate me, but I have asked our God to remember her taunts.” Holding the clove to his nose, the governor closed his eyes, breathed deep, and savored the bold scent. With his constant inspection of the progress on the wall, the man must have relished an aroma that would keep him awake.
“I am surprised she did not bring Sanballat. He is quick to accuse us of wrongdoing.” Adah shifted a pile of rags away from Nehemiah’s ornate robe. “They’re two piglets from the same sow.”
Raising an eyebrow, Nehemiah laughed. “Oh, how good it is to talk with someone who is forthright.”
She half-smiled at his amusement and snatched her own clove from the bowl. “I worry about another attack.”
“I doubt a fellow governor would lay siege to Jerusalem without a royal decree. I have too many faithful servants who would bear arms and fight for this city.” Nehemiah nodded in her direction. “Sanballat and his conspirators fear King Artaxerxes more than they fear God. I was the king’s cupbearer and one of his favorite officials. His letters gave me safe conduct to Jerusalem and the timber to restore my city.” He surveyed the jars near his arm and set one back with the others. “If Sanballat and Tobiah harm me for their gain, they will need to answer to the king.”
“And to our God.” She wrapped her arms around her waist and tried not to think of death and bloodshed.
“Oh, daughter of Shallum, if only old oaths and allegiances were easily broken like a twig.”
Hadn’t Telem warned her and Othniel about this same thing? How certain officials and nobles made vows to foreign leaders upon the intermarriage of their children. They thought Telem misspoke. It appeared her mason knew more than she did about such oaths.
Nehemiah removed a small pouch from his belt. “Which reminds me of the reason I am here?” He loosened the drawstring and held the small bag in one hand. “The household of Shallum has been a great ally of mine.”
Did he wish to pay her for her loyalty? She readied a refusal.
The governor shook the pouch and a beaded necklace cascaded into his other hand. Her necklace, but different. He held it up as if displaying the piece in the marketplace. “I found your beads by the gate.”
Adah’s mouth gaped. She reached out, took the necklace, and counted the sandalwood and chrysolite beads. Four on one side. Four on the other. But in the middle shimmered an exquisite greenish-blue stone.
She fingered the unusual gem. “This cannot be mine. My chain was not silver and I have never seen a jewel this color.”
“That stone belonged to my father. It is rumored to have been a gift from King Solomon to a loyal ancestor. The silver…well, I have been gifted several chains and do not care to wear them all.”
Tears threatened to flood her face. “Oh, Governor. How can I thank you? My mother gave me these beads after I made a perfume worthy of a sale.” Her cheeks warmed like a bread stone forgotten in the oven. “I thought they were lost or stolen. But this jewel.” She fingered the blue-green gem. “How can I accept this treasure from your family?”
“If only I had more to give you.” He sighed and beheld her as if she were as unique and beautiful as the gemstone. “You comforted me that night I wept in the dark, and you
guarded my secret until the assembly. You have worked to restore the wall with more vigor than half the men of this city.” He flailed his arms as though he argued in court. “Even today you defended my honor before a prophetess. I should have prayed for an army of Adahs.”
Smiling under the light of his praise, she said, “Then we would be days behind schedule.”
Even though his face was etched with lines of weariness, the governor laughed.
She beamed with delight. “God will see that we complete the wall.”
Nehemiah rapped his knuckles on the table. “I believe this to be true. We will finish His work.” He gathered his robe and strode toward the threshold. Turning, he said, “If there is anything you have need of, come and seek me. I will not turn you away. Your loyalty has refreshed my soul, young woman.”
“As you have refreshed mine. Thank you for this gift.” She clutched the necklace to her breast. “Toda raba.”
Her mind raced. Should she ask Nehemiah to lower the taxes on Othniel’s land even though it would insult Rephaiah? To what avail? Othniel chose to honor his father as she had chosen to honor hers. He would not return until his family’s debts were paid. If he learned of her boldness, would he reject her? Hold a grudge?
Too late. Gone was the governor. Gone was her chance to beg for the one she loved.
Glancing at the ceiling, she prayed, “Lord, if we finish this wall, will you send the rain? Our farmers are starving.”
Silence.
She removed the jar of lavender oil from the second shelf in her cupboard and breathed in the soothing scent. No matter how many sniffs she took, her heart still longed for a boy laboring in Kadesh-Barnea.
Send the rain, Lord. And please return my Othniel.
Silence.
27
The twenty-fifth day of Elul
“The Lord deserves to be praised,” her father said. “We have rebuilt the ruins. Once the doors are reinforced, the gates can be shut, and we will be a fortress.”
They stood where they had labored for fifty-two days. They stood as a family of laborers with Telem and the brothers joining her family for afternoon prayer. Adah, her mother, and Judith had prayed with the women, rejoicing that Jerusalem would be the grand city of Judah once more.
In all her rejoicing, Adah did not forget those still suffering in servitude, for a very round Beulah and her daughter walking arm and arm down the street were a constant reminder. If only Othniel were by her side, filled to the brim with pride at what his hands had accomplished.
She admired the fit of the stones, the color, the height. No more could she glimpse low-lying bushes and trees. Did King David touch one of these rocks? When the Babylonians attacked the city and destroyed the wall, did someone take their last breath under one of these boulders? Her people had suffered, were suffering, but now, just maybe, God was giving them a new beginning.
Telem crossed his arms without a flinch. “Our section is the best.”
Truly. “I can’t believe you made me dust it with a rag.”
Judith bumped her shoulder. “I think it was a jest, but you did it anyway. You do like orders.”
Adah pursed her lips at her sister while the brothers laughed. “I like order not orders.” She cast a glance at Telem. And yes, she had already counted the stones in their section.
Her mother tilted her face towards the sky. “It is too bad Othniel isn’t here to see this. I never heard a complaint from his lips.”
Agreement came from the small gathering.
“Mm-hm.” Adah’s composure crumbled. She rested her cheek on her mother’s shoulder and clasped her mother’s hand. Today was a day to celebrate. Adah had fulfilled her vow to her father and to her God. Her entire family had faithfully served the One True God. Her heart should have been pressed down with pride, but a piece of it remained with the man who had never doubted her courage.
Her father’s name rang out from one of the alleys.
“Shallum.” The frantic call grew louder.
Adah blew out a frustrated breath. Couldn’t her father have a rest from his duties?
Her father faced the abandoned dwelling with the crumbling corner, his expression as undone as the pile of rubble.
A young man slid to a stop before her father.
“Sir, you must come at once. The prophetess has returned with an army.”
Adah gasped.
Her mother trembled beneath Adah’s hold.
Her father stumbled in his attempt to follow the messenger.
The young man steadied her father’s arm. “You must bring your daughter as well. Rephaiah ordered it be so.”
Adah shivered, growing colder with every dark thought. Telem’s wall of perfectly fitted rocks caught her sight. Would the abandoned stones be used against her? Did the officials blame her for this show of force? And for the return of the prophetess?
Tears welled in her mother’s eyes.
“You can’t go,” Judith stammered. “It is a trick.”
Telem offered her sister a drink from a waterskin. His stare, normally condescending or challenging, was as stoic as a glazed jar in her cupboard.
She shook her head. “God will not forsake me or father. We did His work.” Nestling close to her mother’s ear, she whispered, “Do not fret. Judith will be by your side.”
With a glance toward Judith’s stricken face, Adah followed after the messenger and her father, and left behind her family, friends, and fellow laborers.
Telem and the brothers headed after her, blades strapped to their belts.
She fumbled the beads on her restored necklace, stroking the stone the governor had given her as a gift.
Help me Lord.
28
A crowd of people, mostly men, amassed as if court was being held by the Fish Gate. The messenger plowed through those gathered, clearing a path and not caring if he shoved or insulted those in his way. She followed her father and prayed his status would protect her from harm. Craning her neck to see over turbans and head dressings, she spied a tribunal waiting near the doorless gate.
Four officials hovered to the left of the newly restored frame. Nehemiah was flanked by Ezra the priest and her father’s counterpart, Rephaiah. At least Rephaiah’s ever-haughty son Gershom was nowhere in sight. Adah’s jaw clenched at Rephaiah’s stern-faced stare. No doubt her summons suited his attempt to have his son replace her father as ruler of a half-district of Jerusalem.
Five priests stood on the right of the city’s entrance, including her foe, Delaiah, who had refused to blow the shofar to save his own people. It was strange, but her accuser wore a brightly dyed purple head band.
Lord, I’ve done the work. Please do not forsake me.
“There she is,” a man bellowed. “She’s the girl who insulted the prophetess.”
Someone’s spit dampened her chin. She wiped the wetness on her robe and hastened to catch her father.
“The daughter of Shallum is the false prophetess,” a laborer yelled.
Worse indignations flooded the gathering space.
Sweat dripped down the side of her face while a sea of perspiration pooled above her lip. “God of Jacob, I need to be brave.”
“The witch is prophesying.” Her first greeter offered another taunt. Why couldn’t the man stay silent?
Rephaiah met her father before they reached the circle of officials. Arms crossed and legs in a wide-stance, he acted like he was the judge at this tribunal. “Did I not instruct you to discipline your daughter, Shallum? Her tirade against Noadiah has soldiers camped at our gate. Sanballat has brought over eight-hundred men from Samaria to savor our undoing.”
Several men nodded in agreement.
“Ah, my friend.” Her father opened his arms as if to hug his fellow ruler. “Is my daughter so powerful that a rebuke from her lips puts our city in peril?”
A laugh roared behind her. She turned to find Telem and the brothers listening to the conversation.
Toda raba, Adonai.
Adah hid her fisted hands in the folds of her robe. Throwing her shoulders back, she held Rephaiah’s slit-eyed condemnation without a flinch, although every measure of her body flamed hotter than a torch. She pressed her lips together and did not answer the ruler’s insult.
“Do you have need of me, Rephaiah?” Nehemiah stood a few feet beyond the chattering ruler. “I believe we are conferring by the gate.”
Rephaiah acknowledged the governor with a slight nod. “Yes, all the better for the girl to see our enemies lying in wait for a battle.”
Her father shook his head. “Why should they want to do battle now when our walls are restored and Tobiah is not seated at Sanballat’s side? Tobiah delighted in burning our fields and speaking ill of our God.”
“Because.” Telem stepped from her shadow. “If Nehemiah is accused of treason, Sanballat could petition the king to govern this neighboring land and control the trade that goes with it.” Telem cast a glance in her direction. “I was not deaf in the caves. Jerusalem is becoming a prized jewel.” Telem announced his proclamation to those who stood listening nearby. “A thief like Sanballat will devise a way to snatch it from our people.”
The brothers agreed and started a raucous among those who heard her mason.
“Why is this laborer allowed to speak?” Rephaiah huffed.
“He is a Levite.” Ezra paraded over from the gate toward Rephaiah and castigated anyone who did not disperse to let him pass. “I knew this mason’s father. Hasn’t he been working for Shallum?”
“A son would not be dearer to me.” Her father clapped Telem on the back.
Telem looked as shocked as she felt. But she would grasp any support that was given.
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