THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

B >> BY LOUIS GINZBERG >> THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27

Near the grave of Baruch there grows a species of grass whose
leaves are covered with gold dust. As the sheen of the gold is not
readily noticeable by day, the people seek out the place at night,
mark the very spot on which the grass grows, and return by day
and gather it. (74)

Not less famous is the tomb of Ezekiel, at a distance of two
thousand ells from Baruch's. It is overarched by a beautiful
mausoleum erected by King Jeconiah after Evil-merodach had
released him from captivity. The mausoleum existed down to the
middle ages, and it bore on its walls the names of the thirty-five
thousand Jews who assisted Jeconiah in erecting the monument. It
was the scene of many miracles. When great crowds of people
journeyed thither to pay reverence to the memory of the prophet,
the little low gate in the wall surrounding the grave enlarged in
width and height to admit all who desired to enter. Once a prince
vowed to give a colt to the grave of the prophet, if but his mare
which had been sterile would bear one. When his wish was
fulfilled, however, he did not keep his promise. But the filly ran a
distance equal to a four days' journey to the tomb, and his owner
could not recover it until he deposited his value in silver upon the
grace. When people went on long journeys, they were in the habit
of carrying their treasures to the grave of the prophet, and
beseeching him to let none but the rightful heirs remove them
thence. The prophet always granted their petition. Once when an
attempt was made to take some books from the grave of Ezekiel,
the ravager suddenly became sick and blind. For a time a pillar of
fire, visible at a great distance, rose above the grave of the prophet,
but it disappeared in consequence of the unseemly conduct of the
pilgrims who resorted thither.

Not far from the grave of Ezekiel was the grave of Barozak, who
once appeared to a rich Jew in a dream. He spoke: "I am Barozak,
one of the princes who were led into captivity with Jeremiah. I am
one of the just. If thou wilt erect a handsome mausoleum for me,
thou wilt be blessed with progeny." The Jew did as he had been
bidden, and he who had been childless, shortly after became a
father. (75)

DANIEL

The most distinguished member of the Babylonian Diaspora was
Daniel. Though not a prophet, (76) he was surpassed by none in
wisdom, piety, and good deeds. His firm adherence to Judaism he
displayed from his early youth, when, a page at the royal court, he
refused to partake of the bread, wine, and oil of the heathen, even
though the enjoyment of them was not prohibited by the law. (77)
In general, his prominent position at the court was maintained at
the cost of many a hardship, for he and his companions, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah, were envied their distinctions by numerous
enemies, who sought to compass their ruin.

Once they were accused before King Nebuchadnezzar of leading
an unchaste life. The king resolved to order their execution. But
Daniel and his friends mutilated certain parts of their bodies, and
so demonstrated how unfounded were the charges against them.
(78)

As a youth Daniel gave evidence of his wisdom, when he
convicted two old sinners of having testified falsely against
Susanna, as beautiful as she was good. Misled by the perjured
witnesses, the court had condemned Susanna to death. Then
Daniel, impelled by a higher power, appeared among the people,
proclaimed that wrong had been done, and demanded that the case
be re-opened. And so it was. Daniel himself cross-questioned the
witnesses one after the other. The same questions were addressed
to both, and as the replies did not agree with each other, the false
witnesses stood condemned, and they were made to suffer the
penalty they would have had the court inflict upon their victim.
(79)

Daniel's high position in the state dates from the time when he
interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The king said to the
astrologers and magicians: "I know my dream, but I do not want to
tell you what it was, else you will invent anything at all, and
pretend it is the interpretation of the dream. But if you tell me the
dream, then I shall have confidence in your interpretation of it."

After much talk between Nebuchadnezzar and his wise men, they
confessed that the king's wish might have been fulfilled, if but the
Temple had still existed. The high priest at Jerusalem might have
revealed the secret by consulting the Urim and Thummim. At this
point the king became wrathful against his wise men, who had
advised him to destroy the Temple, though they must have known
how useful it might become to the king and the state. He ordered
them all to execution. Their life was saved by Daniel, who recited
the king's dream, and gave its interpretation. (80) The king was so
filled with admiration of Daniel's wisdom that he paid him Divine
honors. Daniel, however, refused such extravagant treatment he
did not desire to be the object of idolatrous veneration. (81) He left
Nebuchadnezzar in order to escape the marks of honor thrust upon
him, and repaired to Tiberias, where he build a canal. Besides, he
was charged by the king with commissions, to bring fodder for
cattle to Babylonia and also swine from Alexandria. (82)

THE THREE MEN IN THE FURNACE

During Daniel's absence Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol, and its
worship was exacted from all his subject under penalty of death by
fire. The image could not stand on account of the disproportion
between its height and its thickness. The whole of the gold and
silver captured by the Babylonians in Jerusalem was needed to
give it steadiness. (83)

All the nations owning the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, including even
Israel, obeyed the royal command to worship the image. Only the
three pious companions of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah, resisted the order. In vain Nebuchadnezzar urged upon
them, as an argument in favor if idolatry, that the Jews had been so
devoted to heathen practices before the destruction of Jerusalem
that they had gone to Babylonia for the purpose of imitating the
idols there and bringing the copies they made to Jerusalem. The
three saints would not hearken to these seductions of the king, nor
when he referred them to such authorities as Moses and Jeremiah,
in order to prove to them that they were under obligation to do the
royal bidding. They said to him: "Thou art our king in all that
concerns service, taxes, poll-money, and tribute, but with respect
to thy present command thou art only Nebuchadnezzar. Therein
thou and the dog are alike unto us. Bark like a dog, inflate thyself
like a water-bottle, and chirp like a cricket." (84)

Now Nebuchadnezzar's wrath transcended all bound, and he
ordered the three to be cast into a red hot furnace, so hot that the
flames of its fire darted to the height of forty-nine ells beyond the
oven, and consumed the heathen standing about it. No less than
four nations were thus exterminated. (85) While the three saints
were being thrust into the furnace, they addressed a fervent prayer
to God, supplicating His grace toward them, and entreating Him to
put their adversaries to shame. The angels desired to descend and
rescue the three men in the furnace. But God forbade it: "Did the
three men act thus for your sakes? Nay, they did it for Me; and I
will save them with Mine own hands." (86) God also rejected the
good offices of Yurkami, the angel of hail who offered to
extinguish the fire in the furnace. The angel Gabriel justly pointed
out that such a miracle would not be sufficiently striking to arrest
attention. His own proposition was accepted. He, the angel of fire,
was deputed to snatch the three men from the red hot furnace. He
executed his mission by cooling off the fire inside of the oven,
while on the outside the heat continued to increase to such a
degree that the heathen standing around the furnace were
consumed. (87) The three youths thereupon raised their voices
together in a hymn of praise to God, thanking Him for His
miraculous help. (88) The Chaldeans observed the three men
pacing up and down quietly in the furnace, followed by a fourth
the angel Gabriel as by an attendant. Nebuchadnezzar, who
hastened thither to see the wonder, was stunned with fright, for he
recognized Gabriel to be the angel who in the guise of a column of
fire had blasted the army of Sennacherib. (89) Six other miracles
happened, all of them driving terror to the heart of the king: the
fiery furnace which had been sunk in the ground raised itself into
the air; it was broken; the bottom dropped out; the image erected
by Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate; four nations were wasted by
fire; and Ezekiel revived the dead in the valley of Dura.

Of the last, Nebuchadnezzar was apprised in a peculiar way. He
had a drinking vessel made of the bones of a slain Jew. When he
was about to use it, life began to stir in the bones, and a blow was
planted in the king's face, while a voice announced: "A friend of
this man is at this moment reviving the dead!" Nebuchadnezzar
now offered praise to God for the miracles performed, and if an
angel had not quickly struck him a blow on his mouth, and forced
him into silence, his psalms of praise would have excelled the
Psalter of David.

The deliverance of the three pious young men was a brilliant
vindication of their ways, but at the same time it caused great
mortification to the masses of the Jewish people, who had
complied with the order of Nebuchadnezzar to worship his idol.
(90) Accordingly, when the three men left the furnace which they
did not do until Nebuchadnezzar invited them to leave (91) the
heathen struck all the Jews they met in the face, deriding them at
the same time: "You who have so marvellous a God pay homage to
an idol!" The three men thereupon left Babylonia and went to
Palestine, where they joined their friend, the high priest Joshua.
(92)

Their readiness to sacrifice their lives for the honor of God had
been all the more admirable as they had been advised by the
prophet Ezekiel that no miracle would be done for their sakes.
When the king's command to bow down before the idol was
published, and the three men were appointed to act as the
representatives of the people, Hananiah and his companions
resorted to Daniel for his advice. He referred them to the prophet
Ezekiel, who counselled flight, citing his teacher Isaiah as his
authority. The three men rejected his advice, and declared
themselves ready to suffer the death of martyrs. Ezekiel bade them
tarry until he inquired of God, whether a miracle would be done
for them. The words of God were: "I shall not manifest Myself as
their savior. They caused My house to be destroyed, My palace to
be burnt, My children to be dispersed among the heathen, and now
they appeal for My help. As I live, I will not be found of them."

Instead of discouraging the three men, this answer but infused new
spirit and resolution in them, and they declared with more decided
emphasis than before, that they were ready to meet death. God
consoled the weeping prophet by revealing to him, that He would
save the three saintly heroes. He had sought to restrain them from
martyrdom only to let their piety and steadfastness appear the
brighter.

On account of their piety it became customary to swear by the
Name of Him who supports the world on three pillars, the pillars
being the saints Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Their deliverance
from death by fire worked a great effect upon the disposition of the
heathen. They were convinced of the uselessness of their idols, and
with their own hands they destroyed them. (93)

EZEKIEL REVIVES THE DEAD

Among the dead whom Ezekiel restored to life (94) at the same
time when the three men were redeemed from the fiery furnace
were different classes of persons. Some were the Ephraimites that
had perished in the attempt to escape from Egypt before Moses led
the whole nation out of the land of bondage. Some were the
godless among the Jews that had polluted the Temple at Jerusalem
with heathen rites, and those still more godless who in life had not
believed in the resurrection of the dead. Others of those revived by
Ezekiel were the youths among the Jews carried away captive to
Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar whose beauty was so radiant that it
darkened the very splendor of the sun. The Babylonian women
were seized with a great passion for them, and at the solicitation of
their husbands, Nebuchadnezzar ordered a bloody massacre of the
handsome youths. But the Babylonian women were not yet cured
of their unlawful passion; the beauty of the young Hebrews
haunted them until their corpses lay crushed before them, their
graceful bodies mutilated. These were the youths recalled to life
by the prophet Ezekiel. Lastly, he revived some that had perished
only a short time before. When Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah
were saved from death, Nebuchadnezzar thus addressed the other
Jews, those who had yielded obedience to his command
concerning the worship of the idol: "You know that your God can
help and save, nevertheless you paid worship to an idol which is
incapable of doing anything. This proves that, as you have
destroyed your own land by your wicked deeds, so you are now
trying to destroy my land with your iniquity." Forthwith he
commanded that they all be executed, sixty thousand in number.
Twenty years passed, and Ezekiel was vouchsafed the vision in
which God bade him repair to the Valley of Dura, where
Nebuchadnezzar had set up his idol, and had massacred the host of
the Jews. Here God showed him the dry bones of the slain with the
question: "Can I revive these bones?" Ezekiel's answer was
evasive, and as a punishment for his little faith, he had to end his
days in Babylon, and was not granted even burial in the soil of
Palestine. God then dropped the dew of heaven upon the dry
bones, and "sinews were upon them, and flesh came up, and skin
covered them above." At the same time God sent forth winds to the
four corners of the earth, which unlocked the treasure houses of
souls, and brought its own soul to each body. All came to life
except one man, who, as God explained to the prophet, was
excluded from the resurrection because he was a usurer.

In spite of the marvellous miracle performed from them, the men
thus restored to life wept, because they feared they would have no
share at the end of time in the resurrection of the whole of Israel.
But the prophet assured them, in the name of God, that their
portion in all that had been promised Israel should in no wise be
diminished. (95)

NEBUCHADNEZZAR A BEAST

Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the whole world, (96) to whom even
the wild animals paid obedience, his pet was a lion with a snake
coiled about its neck, (97) did not escape punishment for his sins.
He was chastised as none before him. He whom fear of God had at
first held back from a war against Jerusalem, and who had to be
dragged forcibly, as he sat on his horse, to the Holy of Holies (98)
by the archangel Michael, he later became so arrogant that he
thought himself a god, (99) and cherished the plan of enveloping
himself in a cloud, so that he might live apart from men. (100) A
heavenly voice resounded: "O thou wicked man, son of a wicked
man, and descendant of Nimrod the wicked, who incited the world
to rebel against God! Behold, the days of the years of a man are
threescore years and ten, or perhaps by reason of strength
fourscore years. It takes five hundred years to traverse the distance
of the earth from the first heaven, and as long a time to penetrate
from the bottom to the top of the first heaven, and not less are the
distances from one of the seven heavens to the next. How, then,
canst thou speak of ascending like unto the Most High 'above the
heights of the clouds'?" (101) For this transgression of deeming
himself more than a man, he was punished by being made to live
for some time as a beast among beasts, treated by them as though
he were one of them. (102) For forty days (103) he led this life. As
far down as his navel he had the appearance of an ox, and the
lower part of his body resembled that of a lion. Like an ox he ate
grass, and like a lion he attacked a curious crowd, but Daniel spent
his time in prayer, entreating that the seven years of this brutish
life allotted to Nebuchadnezzar might be reduced to seven months.
His prayer was granted. At the end of forty days reason returned to
the king, the next forty days he passed in weeping bitterly over his
sins, and in the interval that remained to complete the seven
months he again lived the life of a beast. (104)

HIRAM

Hiram, the king of Tyre, was a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar,
and in many respects resembled him. He, too, esteemed himself a
god, and sought to make men believe in his divinity by the
artificial heavens he fashioned for himself. In the sea he erected
four iron pillars, on which he build up seven heavens, each five
hundred ells larger than the one below. The first was a plate of
glass of five hundred square ells, and the second a plate of iron of
a thousand square ells. The third, of lead, and separated from the
second by canals, contained huge round boulders, which produced
the sound of thunder on the iron. The fourth heaven was of brass,
the fifth of copper, the sixth of silver, and the seventh of gold, all
separated from each other by canals. In the seventh, thirty-five
hundred ells in extent, he had diamonds and pearls, which he
manipulated so as to produce the effect of flashes and sheets of
lightening, while the stones below imitated the growling of the
thunder.

As Hiram was thus floating above the earth, in his vain
imagination deeming himself superior to the rest of men, he
suddenly perceived the prophet Ezekiel next to himself. He had
been waved thither by a wind. Frightened and amazed, Hiram
asked the prophet how he had risen to his heights. The answer was:
"God brought me here, and He bade me ask thee why thou art so
proud, thou born of woman?" The king of Tyre replied defiantly: "I
am not one born of woman; I live forever, and as God resides on
the sea, so my abode is on the sea, and as He inhabits seven
heavens, so do I. See how many kings I have survived! Twenty-one
of the House of David, and as many of the Kingdom of the Ten
Tribes, and no less than fifty prophets and ten high priests have I
buried." Thereupon God said: "I will destroy My house, that
henceforth Hiram may have no reason for self-glorification,
because all his pride comes only from the circumstance that he
furnished the cedar-trees for the building of the Temple." The end
of this proud king was that he was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar,
deprived of this throne, and made to suffer a cruel death. Though
the Babylonian king was the step-son of Hiram, he had no mercy
with him. Daily he cut off a bit of the flesh of his body, and forced
the Tyrian king to eat it, until the finally perished. Hiram's palace
was swallowed by the earth, and in the bowels of the earth it will
remain until it shall emerge in the future world as the habitation of
the pious. (105)

THE FALSE PROPHETS

Not only among the heathen, but also among the Jews there were
very sinful people in those days. The most notorious Jewish
sinners were the two false prophets Ahab and Zedekiah. Ahab
came to the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar and said: "Yield thyself
to Zedekiah," telling her this in the form of a Divine message. The
same was done by Zedekiah, who only varied the message by
substituting the name of Ahab. The princess could not accept such
messages as Divine, and she told her father what had occurred.
(106) Though Nebuchadnezzar was so addicted to immoral
practices that he was in the habit of making his captive kings
drunk, and then satisfying his unnatural lusts upon them, and a
miracle had to interpose to shield the pious of Judah against this
disgrace, (107) yet he well knew that the God of the Jews hates
immorality. He therefore questioned Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah about it, and they emphatically denied the possibility that
such a message could have come from God. The prophets of lies
refused to recall their statements, and Nebuchadnezzar decided to
subject them to the same fiery test as he had decreed for the three
pious companions of Daniel. To be fair toward them, the king
permitted them to choose a third fellow-sufferer, some pious man
to share their lot. Seeing no escape, Ahab and Zedekiah asked for
Joshua, later the high priest, as their companion in the furnace, in
the hope that his distinguished merits would suffice to save all
three of them. They were mistaken. Joshua emerged unhurt, only
his garments were seared, but the false prophets were consumed.
Joshua explained the singeing of his garments by the fact that he
was directly exposed to the full fury of the flames. But the truth
was that he had to expiate the sins of his sons, who had contracted
marriages unworthy of their dignity and descent. Therefore their
father escaped death only after the fire had burnt his garments.
(108)

DANIEL'S PIETY

No greater contrast to Hiram and the false prophets Ahab and
Zedekiah can be imagined than is presented by the character of the
pious Daniel. When Nebuchadnezzar offered him Divine honors,
(109) he refused what Hiram sought to obtain by every means in
his power. The Babylonian king felt so ardent an admiration for
Daniel that he sent him from the country when the time arrived to
worship the idol he had erected in Dura, for he knew very well that
Daniel would prefer death in the flames to disregard of the
commands of God, and he could not well have cast the man into
the fire to whom he had paid Divine homage. Moreover, it was the
wish of God that Daniel should not pass through the fiery ordeal at
the same time as his three friends, in order that their deliverance
might not be ascribed to him. (110)

In spite of all this, Nebuchadnezzar endeavored to persuade Daniel
by gentle means to worship an idol. He had the golden diadem of
the high priest inserted in the mouth of an idol, and by reason of
the wondrous power that resides in the Holy Name inscribed on
the diadem, the idol gained the ability to speak, and it said the
words: "I am thy God." Thus were many seduced to worship the
image. But Daniel could not be misled so easily. He secured
permission from the king to kiss the idol. Laying his mouth upon
the idol's, he adjured the diadem in the following words: "I am but
flesh and blood, yet at the same time a messenger of God. I
therefore admonish thee, take heed that the Name of the Holy One,
blessed be He, may not be desecrated, and I order thee to follow
me." So it happened. When the heathen came with music and song
to give honor to the idol, it emitted no sound, but a storm broke
loose and overturned it. (111)

On still another occasion Nebuchadnezzar tried to persuade Daniel
to worship an idol, this time a dragon that devoured all who
approached it, and therefore was adored as a god by the
Babylonians. Daniel had straw mixed with nails fed to him, and
the dragon ate and perished almost immediately. (112)

All this did not prevent Daniel from keeping the welfare of the
king in mind continually. Hence it was that when Nebuchadnezzar
was engaged in setting his house in order, he desired to mention
'Daniel in his will as one of his heirs. But the Jew refused with the
words: "Far be it from me to leave the inheritance of my fathers for
that of the uncircumcised." (113)

Nebuchadnezzar died after having reigned forty years, as long as
King David. (114) The death of the tyrant brought hope and joy to
many a heart, for his severity had been such that during his
lifetime none dared laugh, and when he descended to Sheol, its
inhabitants trembled, fearing he had come to reign over them, too.
However, a heavenly voice called to him: "Go down, and be thou
laid down with the uncircumcised." (115)

The interment of this great king was anything but what one might
have expected, and for this reason: During the seven years spent by
Nebuchadnezzar among the beast, his son Evil-merodach ruled in
his stead. Nebuchadnezzar reappeared after his period of penance,
and incarcerated his son for life. When the death of
Nebuchadnezzar actually did occur, Evil-merodach refused to
accept the homage the nobles brought him as the new king,
because he feared that his father was not dead, but had only
disappeared as once before, and would return again. To convince
him of the groundlessness of his apprehension, the corpse of
Nebuchadnezzar, badly mutilated by his enemies, was dragged
through the streets. (116)

Shortly afterward occurred the death of Zedekiah, the dethroned
king of Judah. His burial took place amid great demonstrations of
sympathy and mourning. The elegy over him ran thus: "Alas that
King Zedekiah had to die, he who quaffed the lees which all the
generations before him accumulated." (117)

Zedekiah reached a good old age, (118) for though it was in his
reign that the destruction of Jerusalem took place, yet it was the
guilt of the nation, not of the king, that had brought about the
catastrophe. (119)

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27