Part 1

_JONAH_

_Books by ROBERT NATHAN_

[Illustration]

AUTUMN: _A novel_

THE PUPPET MASTER: _A novel_

YOUTH GROWS OLD: _A book of verse_

JONAH :: :: _by_ ROBERT NATHAN

ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY NEW YORK :: :: :: :: :: 1925

JONAH BY ROBERT NATHAN WAS FIRST PRINTED AND PUBLISHED IN NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND IS COPYRIGHTED NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE BY ROBERT M. MC BRIDE AND COMPANY

_To_ ALICE AND ARTHUR CARNS

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.

II

Night came gently down over Israel. The darkness of earth slid like a shadow across the rocks stained by the sunset. Calm and deep the sea of Cinnereth reflected the stars whose lights gleamed upon the trans-Jordanic hills. There the desert slept; while in the north the lights of Tyre shone upon the sea.

The village herds returned from their pastures. Then the roads of Zebulon resounded with the tonk of bells, as the cows with sweet-smelling breath wound down from the hills. The day was over, and their stalls awaited them. Melancholy and austere, they parted from each other without regret.

Aaron, the brother of Jonah, walked behind them. In his hand he carried a rod with which he beat now and then upon the flanks of the animals nearest him. Then they rushed forward, clumsily, to avoid the blows which fell upon them without force.

The young man enjoyed this hour of the day, when he strode home through the village, driving the herds before him. He was proud to be in charge of the village cows. His mother also was proud of him; she foresaw an important future for him. “Always do your best,” she said. “However,” she added, “do not tire yourself out. And in case of robbers, or a lion, please come home; and do not make a fool of yourself.”

“Well,” the young man would say, twirling his stick, “we’ll see about that.”

Aaron did not think that his brother led a very sensible life. To live all alone in the desert seemed to him a nonsensical thing to do, and he felt sure that his mother agreed with him. Else why did she shake her head so sadly, and heave such a sigh, when she spoke of her eldest son? As a matter of fact, she relived in Jonah, but very faintly, the dreamy, mild, religious ecstasy of her maidenhood. That was all over for her now; life had long ago got down to being practical. Besides, one did not hear so much about God as when she was a girl. Still, she remembered the beauty of those times, when her heart beat with joy and love, when a sweet unrest brought her to her knees, and she felt through her prayers the breath of holiness upon her cheek.

No, one did not hear nowadays so much about God. Take Aaron, for example: as he came home from the pastures at evening, he bent his head before the golden bull which adorned the wayside shrine. In the spring he enjoyed the feasts of the Passover; and he also enjoyed the celebrations in honor of Astarte and Adonis, in company with the other young men of the village. The problems of theology did not concern him; he simply wished to enjoy himself, and to get on in the world. To do that, one did something about it; one began by taking care of the village herds. Then one could look confidently to the future, and leave God to dispute with other people about what He looked like.

When the last of the cattle was safely housed, Aaron turned back to his own home, and entering the yard gate, walked toward the kitchen from whose open door a rosy glow spread over the yard. Jonah was at home; and Aaron stood a moment in the doorway, gazing with a smile at his mother, who was preparing supper. Deborah kept one eye on the oven, and the other on her elder son, who, with a small cake of bread in his hand, was relating to her some incidents of the Aramæan campaign. She wished to know if Hamath was as large as Salem, or Bethel.

“It is larger than Bethel,” replied Jonah, “but not as large as Jerusalem.” Deborah sighed happily; it was something to have traveled as much as that.

“The armies of Aram,” said Jonah, biting into the coarse bread, “were drawn up in a truly terrifying array. I saw a number of men seated upon ostriches, so I knew that we were obliged to battle against demons. Not in the least frightened, our men rushed at the foe in an irresistible manner. Nevertheless, they would have been beaten, and were already in flight, when the High Priest Amaziah appeared upon a nearby hill, and announced that the King of Aram with all his generals had been consumed by a thunderbolt. At this our men decided to turn once more upon the foe, who retreated in confusion, and we rushed triumphantly forward into the enemy’s camp, where we surprised and killed a number of generals, including the King of Aram, and his High Priest.

“When our victorious armies arrived at the gates of Hamath, Prince Absalom came out to greet us, accompanied by the women of the town bearing flowers and bowls of wine for our thirsty soldiers. This noble prince, disguised as a Syrian, had left the battle-field before the armies had begun to fight, and had gone quietly off to prepare our welcome in the city, where he knew a number of prominent people. It is faith joined to foresight of this nature that has made Israel great.”

He was silent; the light from the oven glowed upon his face, which shone with enthusiasm and love. He thought to himself, “All Israel resounds with my glory. There is a new prophet; and his name is Jonah.”

And he added, humbling himself before God,

“I understand that this is Your doing.”

Anxious that Deborah should know of his part in his country’s history, he mumbled shyly, with his mouth full,

“The King considers me a greater prophet even than Amos of Tekoa.”

“Well,” said Deborah sensibly, “why not?” Coming up to Jonah, she smoothed his hair with her hand, and gazed at him anxiously. “What a trouble you are to me,” she said gently; “making wars and such mischief. Well....”

Seeing her younger son standing in the doorway, she called to him: “Come in, Aaron, here is your brother Jonah. He has just made a war. Tschk ... you would think there was nothing but fighting in the world.”

Aaron came into the room, and went up to Jonah with frank curiosity. He wished to know all about it, and he asked innumerable questions. When he learned that Jonah had not brought home any gold ornaments, or rich shawls, he was disappointed.

“No, really,” he exclaimed, “what is the good of a war like that?” And he sat sulkily down in a corner.

But Deborah took Jonah’s part. “No, Aaron,” she said, “that would be all right for you; if you made a war, I should expect you to come home with something, a colored shawl for me, or some gold bracelets. But Jonah is different; and living in the desert, the way he does, gives him ideas. Better a war far away, like this one, than like what we used to have in your father’s time, right under my nose, killing and fighting all day long.”

She turned to Jonah with a sigh. “Why,” she exclaimed, “did you choose the Aramæans to make a war with? Such wild people.” She shook her head ruefully. “Always trouble,” she decided; “never what would be sensible.

“At any rate,” she wound up, “perhaps you’ll settle down now for a while and let your mother look after you, instead of living all alone in a desert with foxes.

“Ak, what an old coat you have.”