Athaliah, Daughter Of Jezebel

by Mordechai Landsberg

It was night. Two guards, Flower Priests, dressed in grey gowns, were keeping the High priest’s home. They were permanently walking around the fenced courtyard; arrows and bayonets in their scabbards, and bows carried on their shoulders.

  Mathan came at the fence from outside, dressed in his priestly robe and Baals’ sign of sun and moon embroidered on his chest . He was whistling some melody, and called the guards from over the fence.

  The two guards approached him from inside, looking at him cautiously. One was holding an oil lantern, that illuminated the surrounding in a pale light.

  “Do you recognize who I am?” Mathan asked the keepers.

  “No… What do you want?”

  “Please, tell the High Priest, that I’m Mathan. I have been sent by the queen, with a message to him.”

  Mathan stretched his hand and showed the Guard two golden coins. The Guard took them with a smile. “I’ll put it to thr Temple’s charity box,” he said, and walked to the front door of Yehoyada’s large hut. He knocked twice on it.

  A maid opened the door to him, and he saw the priest dining at the table with his wife Yehosheva. They discerned the guard standing at the front door, and asked if something was wrong. He told them what the Baal priest had said.

  Yehoyada told the guard to bring Mathan in, and he soon stood at the door.

  “Welcome, serpent,” Yehoyada told his visitor in a calm manner, and indicated him to sit opposite to Yehoshava and himself. He had guessed the purpose of the visit, and began to fear that somehow the queen had become to suspect that the boy is from David’s dynasty. Therefore he began to talk about the boy quite ironically, though his wife pushed her elbow into his arm’s in anger:

  “Why a naughty boy’s refusal so angered the pagan Queen?” he asked.

  “Please, listen to me very well,” said Mathan, “Her majesty has gone out of her mind - because of that boy.”

  “You mean,” said Yehosheva, “that my mother has become a sexual maniac,”

  “Yes. I, her minister, am aware of that…”

  “We shall not give a hand to her perversion and profanity. You can warn your collegues, her servants and offficials and army commanders. They should beware - that she won’t arrive to their kids too.”

  “Let her take a Knaanite child!” said Yehoyada, “Why would Athaliah stick to that poor boy, who’s a God believer? Your Baal religion would allow that…”

  “Her lust for this particular boy is a new pathology in her,” said Mathan, (in noawadays language he would say: “her pedophillia”), “All the physicians whom I’ve asked about that, say the same thing: She wouldn’t become cured - unless she gets that boy.”

  “To put the poor child in her bed?!” shouted Yehosheva, “Outrageous!”

  “Why is this second boy,” asked Mathan, turning to Yehosheva, “who’s not your son… so dear to you? Lady, this love-story of you and your husband to him…may also strengthen her suspicion and cause her voracity. It’s marvelous and strange love, yes. Do you hesitate to hand him, because this boy’s Genealogy is so noble? There’s a rumor, that Yehoyada had praised him in public.”

  “You are a liar, Mathan,” howled the High Priest, ”We know that y o u had spread such a rumor.”

  “Rumor or not,” said Mathan , “If you don’t hand him to the Queen, still tonight, she had sworn… that God’s Temple will burn.”

  Mathan was leaving, while the chief priest whispered: “It’s serious,Yehosheva. She’s crazy.”

  He dressed his robe quickly, and his wife followed him to get out of their house.Yehoyada walked seldom to the temple by night, but at that night, after the queen’s queer visit there, he had left his son and Elyakim in one of his priestly friends’ house. He told the children to play there, knowing that they had been quite aware of a danger.

  On their way Yehosheva whispered:

  “If Athaliah really maddens and sets fire in the Temple – there is a danger in putting the kids in the old cave. It may be burned.”

  “No,” said the High Priest,” I have recently opened a new air-pipe in the place. . .The sqaure stone banning the opening would not enable the smoke to penetrate. I have personally made an experment there, putting a fire very close.”

  “My dear husband,” she praised him, “you had already imagined the worst to come?”

  ”I had. And with God’s help - also my plan for resistance will also soon realize.”

  Mathan was wearing a black cloth, leading a gang with masked faces, near the fence of Yehoyada’s courtyard. He remembered the cynical saying of the queen to him: “Only you should burn that private house. You have expertized in that kind of work… I still won’t burn the Temple. That may burn the God’s Believers rage up to Heaven.”

  Mathan’s gangs were attacking Yehoyada’s gatekeepers by sticks with copper rod heads. They wounded only their hands, and let them escape. Mathan and two of his men burst into the High Priest’s courtyard. First, they broke the house wooden windows, and through them they were throwing torches into the rooms. Fire and smoke were soon emerging all around.

  Athaliah met Mathan in an alley not far. Both were already riding their horses close to each other, leading them toward the Temple.

  “I’ve spoken with your daughter and with the High Priest, “ said Mathan, “and warned them about the Temple. When I had put the fire – they had not been there, in their house.”

  “So, you suppose,” said Athaliah, “that they have already moved to the Temple, to warn the gate keepers and the priests praying inside?”

  He nodded and said: “I think - the boys are with them.”

  “Haven’t you seen the boys in the house?” she asked.

  Mathan shrugged, and said that he had not heard their voices nor seen them.

  “Oh, Baal!” shouted Athaliah at him, “Ride back to the conflagration! Rescue the

  boys. They may have been in the rear side, or in the courtyard!! Search my beloved kid. You, stupid Clergyman. Stop the fire! Fool! …I’ll continue riding toward the Temple, maybe they’re there! Oh, mad Mathan…We are all mad now! Don’t sleep, Idols! Help[ me!”

  She almost burst in a sob. Mathan had already ridden back. Her two guards saw her frustration, but did not know how to react.

  Athaliah was already crossing the Temple’s courtyard, with her guards. She was approaching the front door, her lips mumbling in tension.

  The front door was open, and she stayed there for a moment, her frozen glimpse sent to the hall’s center. Behind the altar she discerned the learning corner. High Priest Yehoyada, his wife and Zakharia, were sitting at the desk and talking.

  She approached them, walking very fast, and looked at Zakharia.

  “Where is the other boy?” she asked him.

  Zakharia shrugged, looking at his parents. They had not risen from their seats.

  That was quite unusual for meeting the Queen, but her mind was busied by her unrelenting haunting vision, so she had just forgotten to demand respect.

  “Is an orphan foundling more important,” she roared, “than this holy Temple?”

  “You burn The Holy Temple – with us.” said Yehoyada calmly.

  “You, rebel and inciter! You will be hanged very soon.”

  “Pagan Queen! You want to bring an end to our religion: to take away from us innocent children, our hope. You will vomit blood - and your plan won’t work!”

  “The poor orphan is hiding,” announced Yehosheva, “and you will never get him!”

  “Enough, stupid woman!” shouted Athaliah, “I’ll hang you, too.”

  Mathan took a short visit to the high priest’s house. He felt no smell of human burned bodies. He looked into the rooms, then at the back courtyuard - and left the deserted blackened house very quickly.

  His galloped his horse to the army’s Headquarters Camp. He left it not far from the gate, and even forgetten to tie the reins to a tree. The horse began chewing the winter grass, and Mathan l
ooked at it and thought what happy life would that stupid eater lead. No problems of royal missions, nor fears of losing a rule, nor haunts by uncureable spirit.

  Mathan rushed to the gate, and one of the keepers had recognized him. He escorted him to reach the Commander’s tent. Soon he was facing Abner, who immediately understood that something irregular had occurred. He asked Mathan if the queen had sent him.

  “No. But by her order- my men burned The High Priest’s house...By a miracle, all the respected dwellers had evacuated it.”

  “All of them rescued?” asked Abner.

  Mathan nodded.

  “The regular army soldiers,” Abner remarked, “are now prohibited by the suspicious queen - from walking or riding inside the town streets. Only policemen and Athaliah’s armed personal guards would deal with citizens’ problems. . .So, with what can I be of help?”

  “I am filled with remorse...” said Mathan, “It’s not only because I was the man – who had guided the incendiaries…”

  Abner was very irritated. He approached Mathan and waved his hand.

  “You, Baal priest…have betrayed many of us. Why have you come with this to me?”

  “Athaliah is mad, within all her head.” said Mathan excitedly “We must stop her, Commander. Only you have influence over the simple soldiers, and a lot of officers will obey you. Even Ball worshippers, when thy will see me in the rebellion leadearship, together with you…”

  “Shut up, man! I can’t rely on you. You had been or still are - the Queen’s lover, her consultant, her astrologist. What proof have you that she’s gone out of her mind?”

  “Ask her daughter Yehosheva, if not the High Priest himself…”

  “Why can‘t they contact me themselves? You lie!”

  “You, Abner, have never dared to act against her. You would blame everyone- except yourself... I should have seen that...”

  Mathan took a step backward, but still gazed fiercely at the Chief Commander.

  “Hold! D’you know what will be her next step?” asked Abner.

  “She will burn the Temple, and massacre the priests of God. Her own men won’t be enough. She rules the foreighners’ commander, Knaanite Luz.”

  “And why should you, already a Pagan, care for that?”

  “The kingdom will break down. Her madness will be the end for all of us. I am a reasonable man, commander Abner. I wouldn’t have come to you otherwise.”

  “Has the queen stopped listening to you?”

  “You should be king. A Rebel, like Jehu. You Know what’s good for all the people of Judea. You are most experienced in war and peace, and you’ve known how to avoid losing your command over the army… ”

  “Thanks for your praising me. But- No!” he shouted, suddenly filled with physical disgust of the twisted Baal Priest.

  “Go out!” he shouted, “Better hide, or — disappear. Or hang yourself!”

  Mathan withdrew, and ran out of the tent.

  Abner was waving with his sword furiously, irritated by what he had just heard.

  After Mathan had mounted his patient mule and began riding back to town, Abner walked to another tent in the camp and talked a few minutes with his deputy Halely.

  Then he rode alone, galloping his horse toward the town. He entered the gate and rode directly to the high Priest’s ruined house. He wanted to see it in his own eyes.

  Meanwhile Athaliah was still in the Temple, facing Yehoyada, his wife and his son- Zakharia. Her guards pulled their swords out of their scabbards, having the queen’s explicit order to threaten.

  “High Priest,” said Athaliah, “you hold the keys and locks of this Temple, and of its Gates. Let me have them all.”

  She stretched her hand, her fingers shaking nervously.

  “I am not the keys’ keeper, madam.” said Yehoyada, “My reliable men do that.”

  “Well. I have decided not to burn the Temple,” she said.”I shall re-build it instead, replenish and refurbish it, as you wish. But…I want to see the boy. Where is he?”

  “Who would believe you, treacherous woman? Your words are like written on snow, and your intentions are always vile.”

  Two Flower Priest came in from the side wicket, and were approaching the quarreling Queen. The Guards indicated them to hold on.

  Athaliah called her Head-Guard’s Captain, pointing on the Flower Priests around her – and on Yehoyada and his wife.

  “Take your men,” she said, “and pull out all keys from these people’s pockets.”

  The Captain wistled and from the front door rushed a group of six additional soldiers. Two of them began to search in the High Priest’s robe, and found nothing. Other soldiers faced the Flower Priests, standing thereby. At first they refused to be searched. The soldiers boxed their faces, and dropped them to the floor.

  They searched in their robes, and at last found old keys in their pockets. The finder handed the keys to Athaliah, who was looking at her daughter, her husband and son.

  “Captain, take my daughter’s family,” she said, “back to their home. They will see something, that would teach them to obey me.”

  “If you burn this Temple - while we are away,” said her daughter Yehosheva, “you will cause a conflagration in whole Judea.”

  “Silent, insolent woman!” screamed Athaliah, “I shall punish you - for all the mischief you’ve done to me along the years! Even your Torah forbids a son or a daughter - to insult their Parents.”

  “I have always believed in the God, that chose Jerusalem’s Temple as his Shrine…and…You want to burn everything.” Yehosheva burst in sob.

  “Yes,” shouted Athaliah, glad to add a blow on her daughter, “I’ll end with the God of Israel! The God, that had killed all my family! This One slayer, butcher. Unjust murderer!”

  “Enough!” screamed Yehoyada, who held his son’s by hand all the time. He turned, taking his wife’s arm, whispering:

  ”Please, my wife. No use arguing with a lunatic…Let us go…”

  He remembered that it was not the first time that Athaliah had despised God. But this time he was suddenly sure, that if she realizes her threat – God must take revenge. All these extreme behavior of her will bring her her end. ‘It’s much closer than anybody would expect,’ he thought. “I would like to add something, mother,” said Yehosheva, “Only this week we have discovered, that the baby of your son, Ahaziah, your grandson - has not gone with his parents to Jezerel. They had left this baby to a wet-nurse, here…No one knows where they are. Have you killed him too – with all king David’s dynasty?”

  Athaliah became frustrated, but restrained herself from using rough words.

  “I didn’t…I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said, “Why do you mention this now? What connection has those murders to me?”

  “You have murdered also that baby! By the sword of your Lover, Mathan! We have discovered that. People talk about your murderous character, Mom. You and your man, Mathan, would not rescue yourselves from the people’s fury. Sometimes God would wait for long - and then punish!”

  Athaliah tried to kick and slap Yehosheva, but she released herself and Yehoyada followed her with the boy. Athaliah ordered her guards to look after them. There was a strange smile on her lips. She also indicated other soldiers - to take the flower priests out of the Temple and get them jailed.

  When she went out of the Temple, she looked at the huts and cabines nearby, in the Temple’s courtyard. She ordered her personal guards to begin searching there.

  “You should look everywhere. Break doors, windows. Destroy walls. I must find a boy who hides somewhere. Don’t hurt him, bring him alive. ..If you don’t find him in this Temple’s area - search in the town. Search in cellars,” her voice became hoarse from anger, “search in pits, in caves, in tunnels, in gutters. Inside valleys and on hills. Don’t waste time. And report to me every day…Oh, Baal! curse the priests of God.” She knelt for a mome
nt – on God’s Temple’s floor, raising her hands to the sky, “Fight for me, Baal!”

  CHAPTER 22