The Hammer: A Story of the Maccabean Times
CHAPTER XII.
THE PATRIOT ARMY.
Three days passed before Mattathias and his sons arrived; but when theycame, they brought with them a considerable force. The news of the eventsat Modin had spread like wildfire through southern Judaea, and hundreds whohad endured the rule of the heathen with ill-concealed impatience flockedto the standard of revolt. It was a strange array that might have beenseen making its way up the mountain pass. A professional soldier wouldcertainly at the first glance have thought meanly of its fightingcapacities. Scarcely a score of the whole multitude was properly armed.Old weapons that had hung unused for a century or more had been taken downthat they might strike another blow for the God of Israel. There had notbeen time to rub the rust from the sword-blades and the spear-heads, muchless to hammer out upon the anvil the dents and notches left by thehalf-forgotten battles in which they had last been used. But it was only afew who had even these antiquated weapons. Most of the fighting men werearmed as their fathers had been under the domination of the Canaanites inthe days of Barak, or of the Philistines in the days of Saul. They carriedmattocks and hoes, pruning-hooks and reaping-hooks tied to the ends ofpoles, or stakes shod with iron or even only hardened in the fire. But anearer inspection would have changed the contempt of the military criticinto something like admiration. These men had all that goes to the makingof the soldier except the arms, and this want, after all, is the easiestto be supplied. They had on their faces the set, stern look of those whoare fighting for a cause, and that a cause very near to their hearts.There were old men among them; but most were in the full vigour of youthand manhood. A real leader of men would have preferred to be followed bythem than by the most handsomely equipped army of mercenaries.
At the head of the column walked the aged Mattathias. Two of his sons,John and Judas, were with him, the other two being busy with themultifarious duties which fell upon the leaders of a force as yet soimperfectly organized. The old man--he had passed the threescore years andten which are more commonly the limit of human existence, among theshort-lived races of the East than among ourselves--had been carried in alitter for part of the way. This he had left at the entrance of the pass,being anxious not to give an impression of weakness. He now walked erectand with a firm step, his indomitable spirit supplying for the time allthat was wanting in his physical strength. Nothing could be moreenthusiastic than the reception which met him when he reached the littlecolony among the hills. He was the champion for whom they had beenlooking, and they received him as if he had been an "angel of God."Azariah and Seraiah, who had been hitherto informal leaders, gladlyresigned their power into his hands, and from thenceforwards acted underhis orders.
There was indeed much to do. The little post in the mountains was now tobecome a fortress, garrisoned by an army which was already considerable innumbers, and which daily increased in strength. Faithful Jews from allparts of the country flocked to the place which seemed the last refuge ofpatriotism and faith. Nor were there wanting less respectable adherents.There was not a few men who, like Benjamin and Shallum, had followed alife in which right and wrong, good motives and bad, were curiously mixedup and confounded. They were divided between patriotism androbbery--divided, of course, in very varying proportions. None were quiteblameless, and none were quite bad. The most unprincipled had lurkingsomewhere in his heart a real regard for his country, and, to say theleast, he found much more satisfaction in emptying the pockets of aheathen than in robbing his own people. The most honest, on the otherhand, could not always guide his actions by any strict rule of integrity.He had to live, and if his enemies did not furnish him with the means, hemust get them from his friends. Many of these men were genuinely attractedby the new movement, genuinely glad to lead a life which their consciencescould heartily approve. Others found that their occupation was gone, andthat they must enlist in the new patriot army or starve. The garrison thusgained a considerable number of recruits, but some of them were of a classthat was likely to give no little trouble in the future.
In strong contrast with these doubtful adherents, and yet, in somerespects, even more difficult to control, were the Chasidim--the"religious," "mighty men and voluntarily devoted to the Law"--the spiritualancestors of the Pharisees of a later time, but actuated by a zeal farmore sincere than what could commonly be found in their degeneratedescendants. Men braver it would not have been possible to find; theircourage amounted to something like recklessness; but they wereenthusiasts, and held their tenets with a tenacity that sometimes madediscipline almost impossible.
An incident that occurred soon after the arrival of Mattathias and hissons exhibited these difficulties in a striking way. The scene of it wasthe extreme right of the position, where Abiathar, one of the Chasidim, anable soldier but a most uncompromising zealot, was in chief command. Thewhole of the population had assembled to take part in a Sabbath service.They had listened to the great chapter in Deuteronomy which proclaims theblessings that will follow obedience, the curses that will fall on thosewho disobey. They had sung together that Psalm "for the Sons of Korah,"which tells of triumph and of shame, in which Israel now thanks Him whohas saved them from their enemies and now complains that He has made thema reproach to their neighbours' scorn, and a derision to them that areround about. And they were listening to a stirring exhortation to quitthem like men and be strong, from the soldier-priest who was in chiefcommand, when an alarm was raised that the enemy were at hand. Some of theyounger men were on the point of running to fetch their weapons, for theywere of course unarmed, when the stern voice of their leader called themback. "Have you so soon forgotten the blessing and the curse which theLord your God hath set before you? Has He not commanded you to keep holythe Sabbath-day, and will you profane it by smiting with the sword?" Theyobeyed the command, though not without some murmurs from those who had notbeen thoroughly schooled in the stern tenets of the Chasidim. Meanwhilethe enemy, a strong force that had been sent out from the garrison atJerusalem, had come up. A herald from the officer in command approached,and delivered a message in these terms:--
"Philip the Governor, and Apollonius, captain of the King's army, bid youcome forth from your hiding-place and deliver yourselves up. Let yourformer transgressions against the King suffice, and do now according tohis commandment. So will he have mercy upon you, and admit you to hisgrace."
The answer of the Jewish commander was brief and decisive: "We will notcome forth, neither will we do according to the King's commandment."
Then followed one of the strangest scenes recorded in history. Theperemptory refusal of the proffered terms was followed in a few minutes bya shower of missiles from the hostile force. The crowd at which they wereaimed made no attempt at resistance, or even at escape. They fell wherethey stood, without lifting a hand, almost without uttering a cry. Thereis no greater trial of an army's discipline than to make it stand and seeits ranks thinned without being able to strike a blow in return. But thesoldiers who endure this trial endure it in the hope of an hour thatcannot be long delayed, when they shall reap the reward of their patiencein an assured victory. The Chasidim who followed Abiathar had no suchsupport in their endurance. They stood like sheep for the slaughter,strong men as they were, and conscious that they could save themselves ifthey would. Not a stone did they throw in reply to the missiles that wereshowered upon them; and when the hostile ranks closed in, not till aftersome wondering delay, and began to finish the bloody work with theirswords, they still held their ground with the same passive, unresistingcourage.
To one man at least the sword of the heathen brought that day a welcomerelease from his troubles. Shallum, the wine-seller of Jerusalem, had beenconsumed with remorse for the part which he had taken on the day when hefollowed "Bacchus and his reeling train." The words haunted his mind withmaddening repetition. The stern doctrines of the Chasidim had exercised asingular attraction for him, and though, stained as he was with sins forwhich he could scarcely hope purificatio
n, he did not even propose to jointheir ranks, he was a diligent attendant at their services and anattentive listener to their teaching. This day he had stood on theoutskirts of the crowd, hearing with a rapt attention the promises anddenunciations of the Law, and listening to, though not daring to join in,the chanted psalms. "Perhaps," he said to himself, "the sound of the holymusic will rid me of that accursed Bacchic chant which rings for ever inmy ears." For a moment, when the massacre began, that love of life whicheven the most miserable scarcely ever loses rose up strong in his heart.But he crushed it down. "I have transgressed too often," he thought tohimself, "the commandment of the Lord; let me obey it at least this once,though I die." The next moment the stroke of a Greek sword levelled him tothe ground, and the Bacchic chant vexed him no more.
Not a single man of all that company--so strong was the contagion ofenthusiasm among them--made any effort to escape the fate that overtook hiscompanions. Still there was left a survivor to carry to Mattathias thenews, at once so terrible and so glorious, of that day's doings. One ofthe men had been felled to the ground by the blow of a stone at the firstdischarge of the enemy's missiles, and had been left for dead upon thefield. When he came to himself, late in the night, he found himself theonly living being among masses of the slain. His first duty was obviouslyto carry tidings of the events to the commander-in-chief, and he made hisway to head-quarters as quickly as his enfeebled condition permitted.
Mattathias saw that this question of the Sabbath must be settled at once,and, if the war was to be carried on with any prospect of success, settledon the side of freedom. He called a council in the early morning of thenext day--the news had reached him about two hours after midnight. His fivesons were present, as were Azariah, and Seraiah, with others who heldcommand in the patriot army. A long debate followed, for some of theChasidim still clung to their rigid opinions, even in the face of thedisaster which had happened, and the manifest probability, even certainty,of its happening again. They answered with stern iteration to each appealthat was made to them by the advocates of reason and moderation, "Thoushalt keep holy the Sabbath-day." It was impossible to yield to them, andyet, such was their courage and devotion, almost equally impossible tobreak with them.
Mattathias, who presided at the assembly, had left the debate to otherspeakers, and had contented himself with keeping the peace between them,as far as he could. At last he rose and delivered his opinion.
"Brethren," he said, "let us take heed that we break not the Law while weseem to keep it. The Lord hath commanded us that we shall not work our ownworks or do our own pleasure upon His day. Shall we take occasion therebyto neglect His work and leave undone His pleasure? The heathen have comeinto His inheritance and devoured it. Shall we suffer them to usurp it forever? Say, too, ye that will not stretch out a finger to save the peopleof the Lord from destruction because it is the Sabbath, do ye not reachout your hand to save a brother or a sister or a neighbour, yea, even astranger upon that day, if it so chance that they be overtaken by someinstant need? Nay, more; do ye not pull out an ox or an ass, if it befallen on that day into a pit? and will ye not pull out the Lord's peoplefrom the pit which the malice of their enemies shall have digged for them?Listen, therefore, to my sentence. If the enemy come upon us upon theSabbath we will beat him back, God helping. Nevertheless, if it may be sowithout damage to the Lord's cause, we will not march against him on thatday. If there be sin in this matter let it be upon me and my children."
And as he spoke the five young men, his sons, rose up in their places, andanswered, _Amen_.
The decision was generally accepted and acted upon, though to the lastsome of the more determined of the Chasidim avoided, as far as waspossible, all military action on the Sabbath.
The rule of Sabbath observance was, however, still very strictly kept. Itwas two or three days after the council described above had been held,when one of the half-bandit, half-patriot recruits was discovered busilyemployed in cleaning his armour on the Lord's day. He was kept inconfinement till sunset, when the Sabbath was considered to end; a councilof war was hastily summoned to hear the case. The man pleaded the recentdecision of Mattathias, which had, he said, relaxed the law of theSabbath. It was answered to him that the cleaning of armour was nonecessary work, and that the distinction must now be kept more strictlythan before, lest the people should fall into sin. He then urged that hisoffence was an error, and might be atoned for by a sin-offering.
"Alas! my son," said Mattathias, "the Temple is profaned; nor can there beany more either sin-offering or peace-offering till it be purified. Youmust bear your iniquity yourself."
John the soldier, who was unwilling that the army should lose one whoseoffence, after all, had only been an excess of military zeal, and Simon,whose gentle soul always was inclined to the milder course, voted for alighter punishment than death, but they were overruled. Even Judas votedagainst them, knowing that such an army as theirs could only be heldtogether by the bond of an enthusiastic faith.
"Give the glory to God," said the aged president of the Court, when he hadcommunicated his sentence to the prisoner, "and take your death patiently,knowing that though you be judged according to men in the flesh, you shalllive according to God in the spirit." The man bowed his head insubmission, and repeated the confession of faith, "Hear, O Israel, theLord thy God is one Lord."
"The Lord bless thee, my son," said Mattathias, "and take thee intoAbraham's bosom."
So the transgressor died. And they buried him under a heap of stones towhich every passer-by made it his duty to add his tribute.