Nabucco

Chapter 16: Training begins

Daniel and the others went immediately to the male servants' quarters in the Palace, where they were given new clothes in Babylonian style.

They, like Miriam, were overawed by the opulent and spacious Palace interior. They went to bed in the dormitory and, despite their exhaustion, lay awake. Their lives had been upended far more than they had anticipated. They chatted in Judean until rebuked by one of their new coworkers and sleep finally overcame their thoughts.

Early the next morning Balasu the head of the royal household appeared. He was a short and grizzly old man who gave the impression of having no sense of humour. He had worked with hundreds of new staff over the years and had learned the need to establish dominance early.

The work day began before sunrise, at the very first light of dawn. Over the weeks that followed, the four Judeans were familiarised with the many parts of the Palace and how to perform the duties that would be required of them. Balasu showed no signs of kindness. In his view, it was an honour to serve in the Palace and people who found the pace too tough would be replaced soon enough.

Finally the day came when they were brought before Nebuchadnezzar for what was usually a first introduction. In this case, the King remembered his first encounter with Daniel and had been looking forward to this time to converse.

"The new recruits, Kudurru" said Balasu, with some pride in the work he'd done to produce newly minted servants (Kudurru was the personal name by which Nebuchadnezzar was addressed in informal conversation).

"Thank you, Balasu, let me have a few minutes with them" said Nebuchadnezzar.

Balasu bowed and exited.

"How have you found it here so far?"

The others had decided by now that Daniel was their spokesperson and waited for him to take the lead.

"It is a great improvement on our accommodation in Tel Abib, my lord"

Ignoring this dig, Nebuchadnezzar went on.

"I hope you will come to see us in a better light. You were unfortunate that your treacherous former king led your people into ruin. If he had shown loyalty to Babylon, there would have been no need for our campaign in Jerusalem. I never wanted to destroy the city, you know. I had my men wait outside the walls for forty-two months. Just imagine how costly that was. I could have destroyed the city right away and put those men to use fighting against Tyre, just up the coast. All it would have required is Zedekiah to be less pig-headed."

In this context, face to face with the man who had ordered the destruction of Jerusalem, explaining his reasons in this detached way, Daniel found it hard to express anger with him. Nebuchadnezzar had such a measured and reasonable manner of speaking. Also it may not go well if he showed disrespect. He changed tack.

"Zedekiah was defending our way of life; we all shared his fear that would come to an end with your victory. Of course we fought against it."

"Ah yes," said Nebuchadnezzar. "I hope you will come to see that our God, Marduk, is superior to yours. The treasures of your Temple have been repurposed here, joined with the many other small kingdoms that we have conquered."

"Marduk's glorious temples are the wonder of the world" he continued boastfully, although with justification. "All people want to be a part of something greater. Why would you want to settle with your parochial little milieu when you can be part of this?" He waved his arm around, indicating the city around them.

Daniel didn't want to push the issue too strongly but neither did he want to accept Nebuchadnezzar's reasoning by silence. He changed tack.

"The temples weren't built by you; they were built by us. We carved the rocks. We stamped your name on the bricks. We, the people you enslaved."

"That's how it goes, I'm afraid. Some people who make the right decisions will benefit, and people who make wrong decisions will suffer. But listen ... there is an opportunity here for you, and for all your people. You don't have to be servants, you know. You can adopt our gods and marry among us and become Babylonians just like any other. Think about that. You thought you were doing well in Jerusalem with your fine God and your fine Temple. Now you've seen better, and you can be a part of this."

"Thanks but I am loyal to my people and our God" stammered Daniel.

There was no piercing Nebuchadnezzar's self-confidence.

The audience over, the four Judeans returned to Balasu and commenced their duties in the household. Daniel, since he could read and write, was made a scribe and given the task of taking down records of important decisions made by Nebuchadnezzar in his meetings.

In this way, while he did not speak at these meetings, he became familiar with the personalities who made their way to Nebuchadnezzar's state room. Many were military figures but the ones in whom Nebuchadnezzar showed the keenest interest were architects and engineers. He had building projects going on all over the city and all over the empire, and he was very closely involved in the design and progress of these.

Daniel came to see how, to Nebuchadnezzar, the whole empire was like one unified body, where water and grain flowed readily and the space was left open for other goods of trade to flow. He saw how his efforts chiseling away at single blocks of stone at Tel Abib was one tiny part of a gigantic enterprise: every major building required thousands of such blocks, and there were dozens of building projects at any one time. At the centre of it all was the mind of Nebuchadnezzar. There was a certain elegance to the system of empire ... but at what cost? All of the misery inflicted on his own people was repeated on all the empire's borders, including right now in Tyre, undergoing a siege of its own. It was an inhuman system that treated entire peoples -including Daniel's own- as raw material for its own self-aggrandisement.