Jonah
peering out across the plains and hills of Phœnicia, across the wide
waters of Meram, far off and unseen, toward the desert, where the night
had already rolled up its cold blue clouds. And she, too, thought of
Jonah; she, too, saw in the moonlight, in the little garden, the thin,
worn face with its grave, dark eyes. They seemed to follow her, without
reproach, but with infinite tenderness, pitying and forgiving. And
suddenly she thought, “Yes, there in the desert there is peace; it is
gentle out there, where Jonah is. O my dear, my dear, do you forgive
me? Have you forgotten? It would have been different, Jonah, it would
have been so different....”
Wearily she went to her little gold box, and drew out her silver dove.
Holding it in her hands like a tiny live bird, she kissed its ruby eyes
and its silver beak. “Little dove,” she said sadly, “tell me what love
is.”
But the dove said nothing. And all at once she let it fall to the
ground.
“Ak,” she cried, “you don’t know anything about it.”
And as she wept, Hiram’s steps mounted through the house to her room.
XV
God was worried about Jonah. Watched by reverent cherubim, whose wings
fanned the air all about Him, the Lord of Hosts walked up and down in
the sky, and said to Moses, who was accompanying Him,
“I must find something for this young man to do.”
Moses looked down at Jonah with an expression of contempt. “He is
hardly worth the effort,” he declared gloomily. “He seems to me to lack
character.”
“You are right,” said God. “Still, he expects something from Me.”
And He added, smiling gently, “Perhaps that is why I am fond of him. He
has not your strong and resourceful mind, Moses, nor Noah’s faithful
heart; but he has suffered. He is simply a man, like anybody.”
“What?” cried Noah, hurrying up, “are you talking about me?”
God replied: “I was saying that Jonah did not trust Me as you did, My
friend.”
“No,” said Noah; “but then, what do you expect? There are so many
different ideas now in the world. I do not recognize my posterity in
these warring nations. Let us have another flood, Lord.”
Moses looked sadly down at Jerusalem, where golden idols were being
sold in the streets. “You are right, Noah,” he said, “but I do not
like the idea of a flood. A flood does not teach people how to live.
Sometimes I wonder if anything can teach people what they are unwilling
to learn.”
“Nonsense,” said Noah. “A flood is the most sanitary thing. Wait and
see; even you could learn something about sewers from a good flood.”
God checked the old patriarch with a kindly hand. “Things are not the
same as they used to be in the early days,” He said. “I cannot drown
the world to-day without drowning My wife, Israel. She is young, and a
nuisance, but she has yet to bear Me a son. I foresee that He will give
His mother a great deal of pain, but that cannot be helped.
“Let us not think of Israel now, but of the prophet Jonah. Moses is of
the opinion that he is not a first-class prophet, and I am inclined
to agree with him. He is a poet; and for that reason I feel warmly
inclined toward him. After all, you, Noah, and you, Moses, see only one
side of My nature. You try to look upon the Greater Countenance, but
what you see is the Lesser Countenance. It is different with a poet. He
does not see Hod, or Chesed, the thrones of Glory and Mercy. He looks
through Beauty to the Crown itself. Whereas you, Moses, have never seen
beyond Knowledge; and you, my good Noah, have seen My face only in
Severity.”
Moses and Noah bowed their heads. “It is true, Lord,” said Noah humbly.
God continued:
“At this moment Jonah does not see Me at all. In the first place, he
is unhappy, and he no longer looks toward beauty. He believes that
there is no more beauty in the world because his heart is broken. He is
mistaken; and after a while his sorrow will sharpen his eyes. Then he
will see more than before.”
“In that case,” said Moses, “why do You bother Yourself?”
The Lord considered a moment before replying. It was obvious that He
wished to express Himself in terms intelligible to His hearers.
“The trouble, My friends,” He said at last, “is this: our young prophet
is a patriot. He is convinced that I am God of Israel alone. I do not
mind that point of view in a prophet, but it will not do in a poet.
Severity, glory, knowledge, belong to the nations, if you like. But
beauty belongs to the world. It is the portion of all mankind in its
God.
“I have covered the heavens with beauty, the green spaces of the earth,
the cloudy waters, the tall and snowy peaks. These are for all to see,
these are for all to love. Shall any one take beauty from another, and
say, ‘This is mine’?”
“Now He is beginning to talk,” said Moses in an undertone to Noah;
“this is like old times.”
But God grew silent again. Presently he continued wearily,
“It is your fault, Moses, that the Jews believe I belong to them
entirely. Well, I do not blame you, for you could not have brought
them safely through the desert otherwise. But you did not tell them
that I was a bull. I foresee that for a long time yet men will be
irresistibly led to worship Me in the form of an animal.”
“Well, then,” said Noah, “if You foresee so much....”
“Be silent,” said God, in a voice of thunder which made the wings of
angels tremble. He continued more gently, “Actually, at the moment, I
am not interested in theology. I am thinking of Jonah.”
And He walked quietly up and down in the sky, thinking. The cherubim,
moving all about Him, beat with their snowy wings the air perfumed with
frankincense; and the clouds rolled under His feet.
Left to themselves, Moses and Noah regarded each other in an unfriendly
manner. At last Moses shrugged his shoulders. He was vexed to think
that he did not know everything.
“Well, old man,” he said to Noah, “have you nothing to talk about
except the flood? You do not understand conditions in the world
to-day.”
“I understand this much,” replied Noah calmly, “that faith is more
important than knowledge. Where would you be, with all your wisdom, if
it had not been for me and my ark? You would be a fish, swimming in the
sea.”
“Do you take credit for saving your own skin?” cried Moses. “Wonderful.
I, on the other hand, was very comfortable in Egypt. What I did was
from the highest motives. I am not even sure that I am a Jew.”
“I believed in God,” said Noah stoutly, “and I did as He told me.”
“So did I,” said Moses angrily, “but I also used my wits a little.
Faith is nothing; any animal can have faith. You and your faith had to
get inside a wooden ark, in order to keep dry. But when I wished to
take an entire nation across the sea, I simply parted the waters. I
shall not tell you how I did it, because it would be lost on you. It
takes a first-rate intelligence to understand such a thing.”
Noah replied excitedly, “Please remember that I am your ancestor, and
treat me with more respect.”
“You are an old drunkard,” said Moses.
But at this point God joined them again, and they were silent, to hear
what the Holy One had to say.
“This young man,” said God, “does not believe in Me any more. How then
shall I convince him of Myself?”
Desirous of showing his knowledge, Moses began to quote from the Book
of Wisdom: “Infidelity, violence, envy, deceit, extreme avariciousness,
a total want of qualities, with impurity, are the innate faults of
womankind.”
“Nevertheless,” said God, “they are also My creations. In My larger
aspects I am as impure as I am pure; otherwise there would not be a
balance. However, as I have said, we are not concerned with My larger
aspects.”
Noah broke in at this point. “Send him to sea, Lord,” he begged. “There
is nothing like a long trip at sea to quiet the mind. It is very
peaceful on the water. One forgets one’s disappointments.”
“You are right,” said God; “we need the sea; it will give him peace.
But as a matter of fact, I do not care whether he finds peace or not.
As I have told you, I simply wish this poet to understand that I am
God, and not Baal of Canaan. The attempt to confuse Me with a sun-myth,
with the fertility of earth as symbolized by the figure of a bull, or
a dove, vexes Me. Increase is man’s affair, not God’s. Besides, where
will all this increase end? I regret the days of Adam and Eve and the
Garden of Eden. Already there are more people on earth than I have any
use for, socially speaking. Now I could wish there were more beauty in
the world. I should like some poet to speak of Me in words other than
those of a patriot. Yet if I try to explain Myself, who will understand
Me? Not even you, Moses, with all your wisdom. And so I, in turn,
must forget My wisdom, in order to explain Myself. I must act as the
not-too-wise God of an ignorant people. That this is possible is due to
the fact that along with infinite wisdom, I include within Myself an
equal amount of ignorance.”
He sighed deeply. “I shall send Jonah to Nineveh,” he concluded. “The
subjects of King Shalmaneser the Third are honest, hard-working men and
women. I enjoy, in some of My aspects, their vigorous and spectacular
festivals. Nevertheless, repentance will not do them any harm, since
for one thing they will not know exactly what it is they are asked to
repent of, and for another, they will soon go back to their old ways
again.
“Thus I shall convince Jonah of Myself where he least expects to
find Me. He shall hear from Me at sea, and again within the walls of
Nineveh. It will surprise him. And perhaps the rude beauty of that city
will speak to his heart, dreamy with woe.”
“I do not doubt that it will surprise him,” said Moses, “but will he be
convinced?”
God did not answer. Already He was on his way to earth. And Noah,
looking after Him, shook his hoary head with regret.
“A flood would have been the better way,” he said.
XVI
God went down to the water. He stood on the shores of the sea and
called; like the voice of the storm a name rolled forth from those
august lips across the deep. And the deeps trembled. Presently a
commotion took place in the waters; wet and black the huge form of
Leviathan rose gleaming from the sea, and floated obediently before its
God.
The Lord spoke, and the whale listened. After He had explained the
situation, God said:
“I foresee that Jonah will not go to Nineveh as I command. He will
attempt to flee from Me, and he will choose the sea as the best means
of escape. It will not help him. I shall raise a storm upon the waters,
and the ignorant sailors will cast him overboard as a sacrifice to the
gods of the storm. That is where you can be of assistance to Me, My old
friend. As he sinks through the water, I wish you to advance upon him,
and swallow him.”
“Ak,” said the whale; “O my.”
“Well,” said God impatiently, “what is the matter?”
The great fish blew a misty spray of water into the air. “It is
impossible,” he declared; “in the first place, I should choke to death.”
“You are an ignorant creature,” said God; “you have neither faith, nor
science. Let Me tell you a few things about yourself in the light of
future exegesis. Know then, that you are a cetacean, or whalebone type
of whale. Such animals obtain their food by swimming on or near the
surface of the water, with their jaws open.”
“That is true,” said the whale, reverent and amazed.
“The screen of whalebone,” continued the Lord, “opens inward, and
admits solid objects to the animal’s mouth. This screen does not allow
the egress of any solid matter, only of water. As the gullet is very
small, only the smallest objects can pass down it.
“Jonah will therefore be imprisoned in your mouth. You cannot swallow
him; and he cannot get out, because of the screen of whalebone.”
“Then he will suffocate,” said the whale.