ABIMELECH

Are you then of our blood?

BARUCH

I am a servant of the one G.o.d, and was born in Jerusalem.

ABIMELECH

Does anyone here know this man?

PASHUR

I know his father, a just man, and a faithful servant of the Lord.

ABIMELECH

How did you fall into the enemy's hands?

BARUCH

I was drawing water from Moria well when they seized me.

ABIMELECH

What proof have you that you are an envoy? Have you a letter, signed and sealed?

BARUCH

Nebuchadnezzar gave me his signet ring, that I might pa.s.s the sentries going and returning. [He shows the ring on his finger.]

ABIMELECH

I have no more questions to ask. Let him deliver his message.

BARUCH

When the a.s.syrian soldiers waylaid me, they took me to the king's tent.

Nebuchadnezzar has kept me under guard these eleven months. Sending for me yesterday, he said: "Wilt thou take my message to King Zedekiah?"

Standing before him without fear, I answered: "I will." Then spake Nebuchadnezzar: "Eleven months have I laid siege to this town. I have sworn that not again will I lie with woman until the gates of Jerusalem have been opened. But I will wait no longer. Should King Zedekiah wish for terms, let him hasten. Never has an enemy withstood me more stoutly.

To none will I be more gentle than to him, should he hasten to sue for mercy."

ABIMELECH

Nebuchadnezzar is a great warrior. It is an honor to have held out against him for eleven months.

BARUCH

He said further: "If ye open the gates and humble yourselves ere the moon be full, I will grant you your lives. Every man may dwell in safety under his vine and under his fig tree. Though ye have shed our blood, I seek not yours, but only victory and renown. It is my will that from sunrise to sunset the nations should learn the news that none can withstand my sword; that there is no king but shall bow before me, the king of kings. I need but a sign, and your city shall be safe, your days long in the land."

NAHUM

Methinks the terms are easy.

PASHUR

Too easy for me to trust them.

ZEDEKIAH

But the sign! What sign does Nebuchadnezzar demand?

BARUCH

He said: "Zedekiah, who has taken up arms against me, must abase himself. When I enter the city, let him walk to meet me, from the gates of the temple to the wall, carrying his crown in his hands, and wearing a wooden yoke on his neck ..."

ZEDEKIAH

[Drawing himself up] A yoke?

BARUCH

"A yoke that all men may know his stubbornness is broken and his pride humbled. I will meet him, will lift the yoke from his neck, and replace the crown on his head."

ZEDEKIAH

Never shall the man wear a crown whose neck has borne a yoke. Never! [He rises to his feet]

ABIMELECH

I could not endure it! [He also rises]

[The others remain seated and silent. After a long pause, NAHUM speaks meditatively]

NAHUM

From the gates of the temple to the wall?

PASHUR

It is barely an hundred paces.

IMRE

No more than seventy, I think. No more than seventy.

ZEDEKIAH