Jonah
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_JONAH_
_Books by ROBERT NATHAN_
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,