THE CHOSEN: A Man Much Loved: Historical Fiction (The Chosen Trilogy Book 3)

by Shlomo Kalo

  “What request was that?” he asked, trying to steer the conversation in a less abstract direction, and also to allow Nashdernach time to recover himself.

  “Didn’t I tell you? Oh – I forgot. Well then,” he picked up the thread again, in a rather more composed tone of voice, “I was sure you wouldn’t agree to stay in your house, if your three friends were evicted from theirs. Was I right?”

  “You were right. In fact, there are two things I have been meaning to tell you: one is that you are not to blame for any of this, the other is that I won’t agree to anything which would separate me from my three good friends, Meshach, Abed-Nego and Shadrach. So I’m telling you now, I shall vacate my house when they vacate theirs, and I intend to inform King Belshazzar to that effect. I don’t need his favours. God is my King and my patron and Him I serve!”

  “No! No!” cried Nashdernach, repeating his blocking gesture, this time with an air of panic. “Don’t do that!” and he added at once: “There’s no need for it!”

  “How so?” he asked, surprised.

  “As I told you,” Nashdernach tried to raise a smile to his weary face but failed, and his face retained the greyish gloom of the terminally ill – “in spite of the promise I made to my noble King, Nebuchadnezzar, may he be exalted even in the world of truth – I tendered my resignation, and I made it clear I would play no further part in the administration of the government unless he revoked his decision to evict Meshach, Abed-Nego and Shadrach from their homes in the precincts of the palace. And he, the young King, was silent for a while, studying me with a look that could have reflected anything other than intelligence, and thinking something over and finally he said: ‘It shall be as you say, old man!’ – that’s what he called me, ‘old man’. And I swear to you he knew very well just how grievous this insult was, twisting a phrase that in other circumstances could have been an expression of affection, and doing it deliberately. ‘I cannot, unfortunately, dispense with your services just now!’ the boy grinned at me and said in conclusion: ‘Their offices they will still have to leave!’ I made no response to this, I just bowed and left the room, that room with its air so balmy and fresh, its furnishings so familiar to me, where so often I listened to the stirring speeches of the King, Nebuchadnezzar the valiant and the wise, King of Kings!” His voice shook, but with a perceptible effort, he succeeded in stifling the tears that were imminent.

  “My thanks to you, dear Nashdernach!” he cried. “In my humble opinion, you really didn’t need to go to all this trouble! I would have been quite willing to leave behind the house that King Nebuchadnezzar, whom the prophet Jeremiah called ‘God’s servant’ was so gracious as to give me. We are people of faith, and the upheavals of this world and the vicissitudes of fate can do nothing to dismay us so long as our hearts are true to God, trusting in Him and eager to do His will!”

  “No!” Nashdernach objected, so faintly he was barely audible, but then he mustered up his last reserves of strength and added in a voice that was almost steady: “You don’t have to thank me – I am the one who should be thanking you, for always treating me with more respect than I deserve, and there is no reason why you should leave the house that my great King gave to you as a token of his gratitude and esteem. And I feel I should apologise to you for the way that the successor to our beloved King is behaving! On the basis of what I have just been saying, I shall no doubt be accused of sedition and betrayal of trust, and I shall freely confess to any such charge. They may do with my grey head as they please!”

  Nashdernach rose.

  He rounded the table and clasped the old man’s trembling, outstretched hand and then, although neither of them could have said how it happened, they fell into one another’s arms and embraced warmly, and when they parted and Nashdernach went his way, he sensed that he was walking with restored confidence.

  The new taxes were imposed, and exacted without mercy, causing resentment not only among the Jewish exiles but among all the variegated racial and ethnic communities of Babylon.

  Jewish reactions to the dismissal of the four ministers and their eviction from offices in the palace were mixed – sometimes contradictory and sometimes surprising. There were those who were angry and affronted, seeing these dismissals not only as a national slur but as a personal insult as well, and demanding some response. On this side, much to his surprise, stood the decisive majority of the long-standing community of Babylon, and among the latter there were some who revived old memories and claimed that if they had not been prevented from acting as they had intended, the state of affairs now would be very different – ignoring the fact that their plan had been exposed and could not be put into effect.

  There were others who approved of the dismissals, saying that the days of the righteous Joseph were gone for good, and Jews should not accept positions of temporal authority; by so doing, they only served the interests of the gentiles and made themselves into scapegoats, to be sacrificed in times of trouble. Their constant refrain was that the acceptance of such roles never did the Jewish people any good, bringing down upon them disaster after disaster, and feeding them gall and wormwood. They backed up their arguments with persuasive proofs drawn from the recent and the distant past, citing the case of the Pharaoh who succeeded the good Pharaoh and “knew not Joseph” – and afflicted the Jewish people sevenfold. And naturally there were some who found a malicious satisfaction in the turn of events, and others who were envious of any benefits obtained from the gentiles by members of their own race, especially wealth and power and prestige.

  But the Jews made no further attempts to subvert the Chaldean state, and it never occurred to anyone to plot the murder of “the wicked king” as they called Belshazzar. The elders and dignitaries of the community warned their flock against indulging in any foolish ideas and trying to rid themselves of the heavy yoke laid on their shoulders – the taxes and the confiscations, the restrictions and the discrimination. Any blow struck against authority would lead to reprisals, punishing not only the culprits and their families but the entire Jewish people. Rather than this, the elders and dignitaries advised them – they should all repent, exiles and veterans alike, give glory to God and fast and pray, wear sackcloth and scatter ashes over their heads, and the cruel decrees would yet be rescinded. And the elders and dignitaries evoked the miracle of Nineveh, where the citizens were not even Jews, not the chosen people of God, and yet when Jonah called upon them in His name to repent, they obeyed him, fasted and prayed and wore sackcloth and scattered ashes on their heads, and all the evil that was supposed to fall upon them was averted, and came to nothing.

  So the Jews suppressed their resentment and opted for docility rather than defiance, but the same could not be said of the Chaldeans. In the course of one of the grand processions through the streets of Babylon, for which the young King had acquired a taste, there was an attempt on his life. The would-be assassin, wielding a sword, was foiled just in time, and beaten to death by the King’s bodyguards. His bruised and battered body was later hung at the crossroads, as an example to others.

  Nashdernach was of the opinion that the man had not acted alone, and the matter required thorough investigation before another attempt was made, this time perhaps with more success. But Belshazzar did not want to listen, and even Nashdernach’s advice that he wear body-armour whenever he left the palace – a suggestion which all the ministers and advisers supported unanimously – he rejected with contempt.

  On the anniversary of the death of Nebuchadnezzar the entire royal entourage set out on a lavish procession of mourning. King Belshazzar rode on a black horse, with Nashdernach to his right, and to his left, the commander of the royal bodyguard.

  When the procession was forced to close ranks in order to pass by the corner of the alleyway leading to the square before the palace, a poisoned arrow was shot. It was aimed at the King, but missed its mark and instead struck Nashdernach, his chief minister. He fell from his horse, barely conscious, and was immediately picked up and place
d in one of the luxurious carriages transporting the King’s innumerable concubines. A physician was summoned, and he examined the wounded man and declared he did not have long to live.

  King Belshazzar turned his horse and rode back to the carriage. Bending over Nashdernach he asked if he had any last request; he promised it would be honoured. He answered him: “Don’t harm the Jewish exiles!” – and gave back his tormented soul to his Maker.

  The one who shot the arrow was never caught, and Babylon was rife with rumours. Some alleged that the assault had been planned by the King’s ministers and advisers, who regarded Nashdernach as a thorn in their flesh, and carried out at their instigation and at their expense. Others claimed that King Belshazzar himself had hired the assassin, to be rid of the old man who had never been one of the court sycophants and who always protested vigorously against anything that seemed to him too imperious or contrary to law and to justice.

  Babylon mourned its chief minister and all the Jews of Babylon, veterans and exiles alike, dignitaries and aristocrats, pedlars and peasants, followed the coffin and lamented the loss of a true friend who would not easily be replaced.

  In the funeral procession the four of them met and walked for a while side by side, in silence. Then he addressed them, saying:

  “We trust in God, and rejoice in Him at all times and always, and live His existence, loving Him with all our heart and might, all our soul and all our mind, and we know for sure that pure souls will come to Him, Nashdernach among them!”

  “That is our fervent wish!” Azariah sighed, staring at the ground. And Hananiah said:

  “It seems that the circle has closed, an era has come to an end. The era of King Nebuchadnezzar, servant of God.”

  And Mishael added, in corroboration of this:

  “As our friend Daniel prophesied to the late King – the golden age under his wise rule has come to an end, and the death of Nashdernach, his right-hand man and loyal retainer, is a further sign that that time is over.”

  “Next will be the age of silver,” he responded calmly, adding, “And if Belshazzar proves unworthy of it, he will not be the one who presides over it!

  “Let us praise the Lord above, maker of Heaven and Earth and all that is in them, who has blessed us with His grace and opened our hearts to love Him at all times and always, with all our heart and mind, might and soul, amen and amen!”

  And all joined in the response: “Amen and amen!”

  The Feast

  King Belshazzar convened a meeting of the Great Council of the Crown and demanded of his senior ministers and advisers that he be brought detailed plans for the expulsion of all the Jews from the kingdom of the Chaldeans and first and foremost from its capital city, from mighty Babylon. No trace of them should be left behind.

  The rumour spread within the communities of Babylon and outside them, as the King made no secret of his intentions; on the contrary, he deliberately let the news leak out, and derived a malicious pleasure from the plight of the Jews, who could not sleep at night for fear and horrendous expectations.

  The elders and the dignitaries of the flock called for fasting and prayer, and privations of body and mind. He joined Mishael, Hananiah and Azariah in a prolonged and rigorous fast; they put on sackcloth and tore their hair and sprinkled ashes on their heads, and prayed to God to deliver the people from disaster and overrule the King’s ruthless decree.

  The date for the expulsion of the Jews from Babylon, so people said, had been fixed although nobody knew it except the King himself and one of his more sinister henchmen, a gloomy misanthrope named Nasathan, who had emerged from obscurity after the demise of Nebuchadnezzar.

  Members of the other ethnic groups living in Babylon were already eyeing up the houses and hovels that would soon be vacated by the Jews, becoming the property of whoever was first to grab them, while the Jews themselves were sitting and praying in the new oratory that they had built for themselves, with Nebuchadnezzar’s blessing, on the outskirts of the town, and no one slept or tasted food and all were tense with expectation and foreboding, not knowing what the future held for them. One of the ministers took the risk of reminding the King of his promise to Nashdernach. He had personally witnessed the death of Nashdernach, his memory be blessed, and had heard his last request and Belshazzar’s undertaking to fulfil it. By way of response to his minister, the King ordered his bodyguards to eject the man from his palace; they complied and did such a thorough job of it that the minister returned to his home with bandaged head and a black eye.

  King Belshazzar was satisfied with all that he had done and excited at the prospect of what he was yet to do. He invited his friends, and there were many of them, to a great feast that was to continue whole days and nights – until the day of the enactment of the decree, when a crack squad of Chaldean soldiers would begin the process of evicting the Jews from their homes, and expelling them from all the territories under Babylonian rule.

  Warmed by the wine, Belshazzar gave the order to fetch the vessels of gold and silver which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the sanctuary at Jerusalem, so that the King and his ministers, his mother, his wife and his concubines, might drink from them. So the vessels of gold and silver that had been taken from Jerusalem were brought in, and the King and his ministers, his mother, his wife and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of bronze and iron, of wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a hand, a human hand, appeared and wrote on the wall of the palace opposite the lamp, and the King saw the hand as it wrote.

  At this the King was filled with dismay, and his mind was in turmoil, his limbs limp and his knees knocking together. He called loudly for the magicians, diviners and astrologers to be brought to him, and addressing the wise men of Babylon he said: ‘Whoever can read this writing and tell me its interpretation shall be robed in purple and honoured with a chain of gold round his neck, and he shall rule over Babylon, with only the King and his viceroy outranking him.’ The King’s wise men came and they could not read the writing nor interpret it for the King.

  The King was scared out of his wits, and his ministers were at a loss. Hearing what had happened, the King’s mother came and addressed him: ‘Long live the King!’ she said, ‘Calm yourself and do not be dismayed. There is a man in your kingdom who has in him the spirit of the holy gods, a man who was known in your father’s time for his intelligence and his wisdom. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, appointed him chief of the magicians, the diviners and astrologers. This Daniel, whom the King named Belteshazzar, has the gift of interpreting dreams, explaining riddles and solving problems. Call upon Daniel, and he will give you the interpretation.’

  Then Daniel was brought before the King, and the King said to him: ‘Are you Daniel, whom the King my father brought from Judah? I have heard that you possess the spirit of the holy gods and that you are a man of clear understanding and exceptional wisdom. The wise men and the sorcerers have just been brought into my presence to read this writing and tell me its interpretation, and they have been unable to interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you are able to give interpretations and to solve problems. So now, if you are able to read the words and tell me what they mean, you shall be robed in purple and honoured with a chain of gold round your neck and you shall rank as third in the kingdom!’

  Then Daniel replied to the King: ‘Your gifts you may keep for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless I will read this writing to your majesty and tell you its interpretation.

  ‘The Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom and power and glory and majesty, and because of this power which he gave him, all peoples and nations of every tongue trembled before him and were afraid. He put to death whom he would and spared whom he would, he promoted them at will and at will degraded them. But when he became haughty, stubborn and presumptuous, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken from him. He was banished from the society of men, his mind became like that of a
beast, he lived with the wild asses and ate grass like oxen, and his body was bathed in the dew of heaven, until he came to know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdom of men and sets up over it whom he will. But you, his son Belshazzar, did not humble your heart, although you knew all this. You have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. The vessels of his temple have been brought to your table, and you and your ministers, your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them, and you have praised the gods of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor know, and you have not given glory to God, in whose charge is your living soul. And this hand has been sent and it has written this inscription, and this is what is written: ‘Mene mene tekel u-pharsin’. And the interpretation: ‘mene’ – God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; ‘tekel’ – you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; ‘u-pharsin’ – and your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.’

  The following day Belshazzar the Chaldean King was murdered. This time it was a member of his household who assailed him, a young officer of the guard whose parents, in the countryside, had been evicted from their home and left destitute for failing to pay the new taxes when they were due, and his brother and his two sisters had been sold into slavery.