Page 10 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

“Indeed it would seem so,” put in Hananiah, “and we had best fortify our hearts lest
we deny Jehovah our God, should this testing overtake us.”

Adiel and Manoah, who had been conversing about an approaching court function to
which they had been invited to act as pages, stopped to hear the conversation of the four,
until Adiel broke in a little petulantly: “At it again! Forever spreading gloom! If ever
you fellows would emerge from your coccoon of extreme religiousness, and fly away

with us to enjoy some of the youthful pleasures that His Majesty King Jehoiakim so
abundantly provides for us, you would take a happier view of things. Nebuchadnezzar
will probably never come against us, but even if he does, the armies of Judah are
sufficiently strong to repulse him. Away with such pessimistic forebodings, as that we,

the princes of the house of Judah, should be taken captive to Babylon! ”

“We wish it as you say, friend Adiel,” replied the gentle Azariah, “but the prophets
have spoken, and we cannot but heed.”

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Even on the night of the 10 Chisleu, when the news came that the Chaldean armies
were already in the plains of Ammon on the other side of Jordan, the revelry in the
palace of Jehoiakim continued unabated. “If the report is true that Nebuchadnezzar’s
army is that near, he is undoubtedly on his way to attack Pharaoh-Necho with whom he
has had a continuous feud. He will by-pass us entirely so we have nothing to fear.” Such
is the ostrich-optimism of those sodden with dissipation and pleasure!

The young man Daniel had returned to his home, a simple house near the fish-gate.
His father, Johanan, married late in life, was growing old. Of the royal lineage, Johanan,
had allowed his patrimony to be dissipated while he devoted himself to study and

association with the scribes. He was, withal, a wise and godly Jew and greatly
deprecated the degenerate tendencies of the time.

“Did you hear the news, my Father, that the Chaldeans are approaching? Is this not

what the prophet Jeremiah has been warning us of? And the other day at the school my
friends and I were reading a parchment written by Father Isaiah 100 years ago,
predicting that one day our land would fall under the conquest of Babylon and that

young men of the seed-royal would be taken to serve in the palace of the King of
Babylon.”

“I am quite familiar with that parchment, my son, and it is true that the words of
Isaiah were thus spoken to Hezekiah. I can recall the description given me by my parents

concerning the noble Isaiah. He spake against the idolatrous abominations of Manasseh,
and that wicked son of a good father caused him to be sawn asunder, just outside of the