Jeremiah Part 38

Forget not that the siege has lasted nearly a year, and that there are many mouths to feed.

ZEDEKIAH

[After another pause] We can reduce the rations yet further. Let nothing be wasted.

NAHUM

Long have we been careful to avoid waste. Yet the storehouses gape with emptiness. Time is a mighty eater.

ZEDEKIAH

How long, then, thinkest thou, ere famine is upon us?

NAHUM

[In low tones] Three weeks, Lord. No more.

[A pause]

ZEDEKIAH

Three weeks ... And then?

NAHUM

How can I answer thee, O King? G.o.d alone knows the answer. [Renewed silence]

HANANIAH

[In great excitement] Cut the loaves in half. Cut them in three, and let that suffice for the day. Too long have they lived riotously, they and their concubines; let them grow lean, now, fighting the Lord's fight.

ABIMELECH

My soldiers must not have their food cut down. No man can fight on an empty stomach.

HANANIAH

We must all share and share alike, the soldiers as well as the others.

Jerusalem is at stake.

ABIMELECH

My men must have their strength kept up. Let the useless mouths go hungry, the windbags and the prattlers.

NAHUM

You talk folly. What would it avail to pinch ourselves unduly, seeing that there are an hundred thousand within the walls. There is food to last us three weeks. If we slaughter the beasts reserved for the temple, we can hold out a fortnight more.

PASHUR

Let us keep the peace among ourselves. Ye rail against one another like enemies. Let us stand united against Nebuchadnezzar and likewise against our own people. Neither he nor they must know aught of our need.

ZEDEKIAH

What if he know it already?

NAHUM

None can know it. Daily I set my seal on the doors of the storehouses.

Neither the people nor Nebuchadnezzar can be aware of our distress.

ABIMELECH

G.o.d be praised. Nebuchadnezzar would show us no mercy if he knew.

ZEDEKIAH

[After a pause] I have called you in council, elders of the people. Wars are not ended by the sword alone. I have summoned you to ask whether I should send an envoy to Nebuchadnezzar, praying him that there should be peace between our nations.

HANANIAH

No peace with the blasphemers of the Almighty!

ABIMELECH

Let him make the first offer.

PASHUR

I think it would be dangerous for us to begin. Should we open the parley, he would seek to make slaves of us.

ZEDEKIAH

I hold other views. Though as yet he knows nothing of our desperate plight, it can remain hidden for a few days only. We must turn these days to account.

NAHUM

True are thy words, O King. We must seek mercy of Nebuchadnezzar before he triumphs over us with the sword.

ABIMELECH

[Bitterly] Sue for mercy! Death were better!

PASHUR

We need G.o.d's mercy, not man's.

HANANIAH