Nabucco

Chapter 36: The stone menorah

Rather than participate in the Royal Wedding, Daniel, with Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, decided to travel back to Tel Abib to join in celebrations of the new freedoms.

They hitched a ride, as usual, on one of the barges that travelled up and down the Kebar. The trip towards Tel Abib was always faster as it was going in the direction of the current. As the barge sped along, Daniel for the first time paid attention to the man holding the tiller.

"Where are you from?" he asked, out of curiosity.

"Damascus" he said.

"So you're not from Babylon either."

The man shook his head.

"Do you see others from your community?"

"Oh sure; there are districts in Babylon where we can find the cuisine of our homeland. You'll always find people from Damascus."

"What brought you to Babylon?"

The man shrugged.

"When I was young, I wanted to see the big city for myself. Then I found work and was able to stay."

"But you could return to Damascus if you wanted to?"

"Sure. But why would I? For me, Damascus is the past."

His view was one that Daniel had never considered. Maybe the Judeans' future was not back in Jerusalem after all. If anything, the visions of Ezekiel and Nebuchadnezzar suggested the opposite.

He was shaken out of this reverie by Azariah tapping his shoulder and then pointing to Tel Abib, which now loomed out of the haze.

Earlier at Tel Abib, Ahu-bani had dutifully read aloud a copy of Nebuchadnezzar's proclamation to the astonished Judeans. He had also authorised the removal of the much-disliked statue of Bel from the Judean encampment, which was the first physical sign that the changes were no trick and were real.

A large crowd had gathered to watch as the statue's feet were loosened from its plinth and then, to many cheers, it was lowered flat and taken away by his men.

In its place, the Judean quarry workers had prepared something special.

A massive stone menorah with seven stems was brought forward by cart and raised into place. It was as tall as a man. There had been ten such menorahs, made of bronze, inside the Temple (unbenownst to the Judeans, all of them now decorated various public buildings in Babylon).

As night fell, a large bonfire was set up before the menorah and its front face waxed and waned in the reflected glow of the flames.

The people sang,

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

The whole community had come down to the space and gathered to join in the celebration. Lamps were lit, food vendors hastily set up shop and Tel Abib took on the atmosphere of a carnival.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were recognised and feted as heroes; numerous men raised a horn of beer towards them exultantly as they passed by.

Daniel met Miriam in the crowd. She beamed with recognition, raced towards him and embraced him.

"I'm so glad you could be here" she said.

"Me too" he replied with a smile.

"It looks magnificent" he said, indicating the menorah.

"Yes. We are proud of who we are." Miriam said.