Thus, the Lord of the sheep in the Book of Enoch— who is he?
Who but the King of whom we are speaking?
A throne is set up for him; he smites the earth, and the other kings are shaken from their thrones, and the scourges of Israel flung into a cavern of fire flaming with pillars of fire.
So also the singer of the Psalms of Solomon—’Behold, O Lord, and raise up to Israel their king, the son of David, at the time thou knowest, O God, to rule Israel, thy children… . And he will bring the peoples of the heathen under his yoke to serve him… . And he shall be a righteous king taught of God, … for he shall rule all the earth by the word of his mouth forever.’
And last, though not least, hear Ezra, the second Moses, in his visions of the night, and ask him who is the lion with human voice that says to the eagle— which is Rome— ’Thou hast loved liars, and overthrown the cities of the industrious, and razed their walls, though they did thee no harm.
Therefore, begone, that the earth may be refreshed, and recover itself, and hope in the justice and piety of him who made her.’
Whereat the eagle was seen no more.
Surely, O my master, the testimony of these should be enough!
But the way to the fountain’s head is open.
Let us go up to it at once.— Some wine, Esther, and then the Torah.”
“Dost thou believe the prophets, master?” he asked, after drinking. “I know thou dost, for of such was the faith of all thy kindred.— Give me, Esther, the book which bath in it the visions of Isaiah.”
He took one of the rolls which she had unwrapped for him, and read, “’The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined… . For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder… . Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.’— Believest thou the prophets, O my master?— Now, Esther, the word of the Lord that came to Micah.”
She gave him the roll he asked.
“‘But thou,’” he began reading— “’but thou, Bethlehem Ephrath, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.’— This was he, the very child Balthasar saw and worshipped in the cave.
Believest thou the prophets, O my master?— Give me, Esther, the words of Jeremiah.”
Receiving that roll, he read as before, “’Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.’
As a king he shall reign— as a king, O my master!
Believest thou the prophets?— Now, daughter, the roll of the sayings of that son of Judah in whom there was no blemish.”
She gave him the Book of Daniel.
“Hear, my master,” he said: “’I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven… . And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.’— Believest thou the prophets, O my master?”
“It is enough. I believe,” cried Ben-Hur.
“What then?” asked Simonides. “If the King come poor, will not my master, of his abundance, give him help?”
“Help him?
To the last shekel and the last breath.
But why speak of his coming poor?”
“Give me, Esther, the word of the Lord as it came to Zechariah,” said Simonides.
She gave him one of the rolls.
“Hear how the King will enter Jerusalem.”
Then he read, “’Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion… . Behold, thy King cometh unto thee with justice and salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.’”
Ben-Hur looked away.
“What see you, O my master?”
“Rome!” he answered, gloomily— “Rome, and her legions.
I have dwelt with them in their camps.
I know them.”
“Ah!” said Simonides. “Thou shalt be a master of legions for the King, with millions to choose from.”
“Millions!” cried Ben-Hur.
Simonides sat a moment thinking.
“The question of power should not trouble you,” he next said.
Ben-Hur looked at him inquiringly.
“You were seeing the lowly King in the act of coming to his own,” Simonides answered— “seeing him on the right hand, as it were, and on the left the brassy legions of C?sar, and you were asking, What can he do?”
“It was my very thought.”
“O my master!” Simonides continued. “You do not know how strong our Israel is.
You think of him as a sorrowful old man weeping by the rivers of Babylon.
But go up to Jerusalem next Passover, and stand on the Xystus or in the Street of Barter, and see him as he is.
The promise of the Lord to father Jacob coming out of Padan-Aram was a law under which our people have not ceased multiplying— not even in captivity; they grew under foot of the Egyptian; the clench of the Roman has been but wholesome nurture to them; now they are indeed ‘a nation and a company of nations.’
Nor that only, my master; in fact, to measure the strength of Israel— which is, in fact, measuring what the King can do— you shall not bide solely by the rule of natural increase, but add thereto the other— I mean the spread of the faith, which will carry you to the far and near of the whole known earth.
Further, the habit is, I know, to think and speak of Jerusalem as Israel, which may be likened to our finding an embroidered shred, and holding it up as a magisterial robe of Caesar’s.
Jerusalem is but a stone of the Temple, or the heart in the body.
Turn from beholding the legions, strong though they be, and count the hosts of the faithful waiting the old alarm, ’To your tents, O Israel!’— count the many in Persia, children of those who chose not to return with the returning; count the brethren who swarm the marts of Egypt and Farther Africa; count the Hebrew colonists eking profit in the West— in Lodinum and the trade-courts of Spain; count the pure of blood and the proselytes in Greece and in the isles of the sea, and over in Pontus, and here in Antioch, and, for that matter, those of that city lying accursed in the shadow of the unclean walls of Rome herself; count the worshippers of the Lord dwelling in tents along the deserts next us, as well as in the deserts beyond the Nile: and in the regions across the Caspian, and up in the old lands of Gog and Magog even, separate those who annually send gifts to the Holy Temple in acknowledgment of God— separate them, that they may be counted also.