Nabucco

Chapter 7: Tel Abib

After their brief encounter with the city of Babylon, the Judean exiles were moved on once again.

It was another long march although it didn't compare to the walk they had endured. Roads were flat and water was plentiful. The march took them alongside a waterway that did not wander its way through the landscape but ran mostly in a straight line, only occasionally bending. It was clear from the piles of rocks at its edges that this was either man made or made straight by an epic effort of human labourers. Up and down this gently flowing river floated more of the Chaldean watercraft, mainly carrying grain to the East, back towards Babylon. This was the Kebar Canal.

Notwithstanding the easier conditions, it still took more than a week but, at last, the Judeans reached their destination: Tel Abib. It was a hill by the canal on which a ramshackle settlement had been constructed, with scrappy dwellings dotted over the hillside, well above the floodplain.

Miriam's group were not the first Judean exiles. The Babylonians had taken a smaller group from Jerusalem into exile eleven years previously, after an earlier military campaign in which the previous king Jeconiah was deposed, also for his support of Egypt against Babylon. In punishment he was taken to Babylon and replaced on the throne with his then 21-year old uncle Zedekiah. These survivors of that earlier march had been living in Tel Abib for a decade now. Jeconiah himself hadn't been seen since arriving in Babylon, where he was held in prison.

Exhausted, and finally no longer driven, the exiles collapsed to the ground. The earlier arrivees were quickly put to work building simple sun shelters for their new countrymen and women. There was no need of more elaborate shelter: a small number of people had made the journey carrying a few treasured possessions the whole way but most, like Miriam and her mother, owned nothing more than the clothes they were wearing, which were filthy and shredded from the arduous journey they'd undertaken. They had no furniture, no changes of clothes, no precious items. Her mother had carried just the purse containing her sewing needles.

Amidst all the woe and misery there were a few cries of recognition as some people rediscovered their lost family members. A face that was familiar to many of the adults was the eccentric prophet Ezekiel. People were abashed to be reminded that he had warned them for years of impending doom. He'd been an unpopular figure, especially with the Temple priests and the royal family, who he was constantly calling out for their infidelity to tradition. He was swiftly sent packing at the same time that Zedekiah was installed as a puppet of the Chaldeans, allowing Zedekiah a freer hand to insinuate Babylonian culture into Judean society, for which he soon had to contend with Jeremiah and his similar message.

Ezekiel was never one to be concerned with his appearance. After years in Tel Abib he now had long bedraggled hair and beard and his skin was dark and spotted from the sun. Baruch approached and cautiously greeted Ezekiel. He knew Ezekiel had been on the outskirts of society but he could not deny that he was a person who spoke the truth, much like his own former boss Jeremiah, who was now somewhere back in conquered Judea.

Ezekiel without hesitation embraced Baruch in return.

"You were right," said Baruch. "We were unfaithful and Adonai has punished us."

"Yes. It gives me no pleasure to know it. But now that is over. The people will repent and He will restore Jerusalem to them."

Baruch was stunned.

"How can you say this? We are defeated utterly. The Temple has fallen. Jerusalem was burned. Our king is in chains, and we are all here. What is there to restore?"

Ezekiel nodded and put a hand on Baruch's shoulder.

"Adonai cannot be defeated. Only we can turn our back on him."

Baruch remained speechless at Ezekiel's optimism. Then again, Ezekiel had just seen his countrymen for the first time in ten years, so maybe his lighter mood was not so surprising.

In time it emerged that Ezekiel had been preaching this different message for a long while. He had fully expected the deportation to happen and was, in a strange way, relieved by it because it brought the day of return closer.

Over the coming weeks the Chaldeans ascertained what people's individual skills were and assigned them tasks. Many of the earlier exiles could speak Akkadian and were therefore able to translate, so this process was speedier than earlier interactions, when the handful of Hebrew-speaking Chaldean soldiers had to make their way around the vast encampment to pass along instructions.

Miriam's mother was naturally put to work spinning. Her first responsibilities were to sew together vast banners of the kind that they had seen during the parade in Babylon.

None of the exiles were paid for their work; they were simply given subsistence meals and water and basic living quarters that improved slightly as the months and years went on to have walls but they were still only made of fabric and were not solid buildings. The food arrived by boat out of the apparently endless bounty of the tilled lands in Babylonia, and soon some of the Judeans' number were put to work preparing meals. They began creating little reminders of home in the food, stamping Hebrew letters into the bread before it was fired.

Soon enough, a barter economy sprang up and people found devious means to trade. Despite the risks, people would stash excess material such as gold thread and trade it with soldiers for extra rations or even for beer, the alcoholic drink popular in the area. The Chaldeans brewed it from barley, one of the grains that they harvested. The Judeans had been more accustomed to wine but were happy to procure anything to relieve their monotonous diet of grain and water.

Miriam's cousins Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were all assigned the task of steering the barges that carried finished stonework out to larger boats, where they could be carried upstream to Babylon.