Nehushta

“ Meanwhile, Nehushta, Miriam and the steward Stephanus, disguised as a slave, went on as swiftly as they dared towards the palace of Marcus in the Via Agrippa. The two women held each other by the hand but said nothing; their hearts seemed too full for speech. Only the old steward kept muttering—“Two thousand sestertia! The savings of years! Two thousand sestertia for that bit of a girl! Surely the gods have smitten him mad.”
“Hold your peace, fool,” said Nehushta at length. “At least, I am not mad; the property that went with her is worth more than the money.” ”

“ He trod swiftly across the terrace.
"Zoroaster! prince!" Nehushta called aloud, but without turning. He came back. She threw her arms about his neck and kissed him almost desperately. Then she pushed him gently away from her.
"Go—my love—only that," she murmured, and he left her standing by the marble balustrade, while the yellow moon turned slowly pale as she rose in the heavens, and the song of the lorn nightingale re-echoed in the still night, from the gardens to the towers, in long sweet cries of burning love, and soft, complaining, silvery notes of mingled sorrow and joy. ”

“ It is needful that all should suffer. Forget not that although your heart be heavy, you are a queen, and must bear yourself as a queen. Take your life strongly in your hands and live it. The end is not far and your peace is at hand."
Nehushta looked up suddenly and grew very grave as he spoke. Her heavy eyes rested on his, and she sighed—but the sigh was still broken, by the trembling of her past sobs.
"You, who are a priest and a prophet," she said,—"you, who read the heaven as it were a book—tell me, Zoroaster, is it not far? ”

“ Then Nehushta took her to the cabin, and presently the oars began to beat and the great galley stood out of the harbour, till in the silence of the sea the screams of the victims and the shouts of the victors died away, and as night fell naught could be seen of Tyre but the flare from the burning houses of the slaughtered Jews. ”

“ And in the lower chamber of the tower the women sat upon the floor, with Nehushta in their midst, and sorrowed greatly, fasting and mourning in raiment of sackcloth, and strewing ashes upon the floor and upon themselves. Nehushta's face grew thin and very pale and her lips white in that time, and she let her heavy hair hang neglected about her. Many of the men shaved their heads and went barefooted, and the fortress and the palaces were filled with the sound of weeping and grief. ”

“ It was not the least of the things that had made her life pass so easily, that she felt daily how she was loved before her rival, and how, in her inmost heart, Atossa chafed at seeing Darius forsake her society for that of the Hebrew princess. If the king had wearied of her, Nehushta would very likely have escaped from the palace, and gone out to face any misfortunes the world might hold for her, rather than remain to bear the scoffing of the fair smiling woman she so hated. ”

“ What do you mean?” he gasped. “Where is Miriam?”
“In the hands of the Jews,” she answered. Then she told him all that story.
“There is nothing to be done,” he moaned when she had finished. “To open the door now would be but to reveal the secret of our hiding-place to the Jews or to the Romans, either of whom would put us to the sword, the Jews for food, the Romans because we are Jews. We can only leave her to God and protect ourselves.”
“Had I my will,” answered Nehushta, “I would leave myself to God and still strive to protect her. ”

“ There lived also in the palace Zoroaster, the Persian prince, being now in the thirty-first year of his age, and captain of the city and of the stronghold. And there, too, surrounded by her handmaidens and slaves, in a wing of the palace apart from the rest, and more beautiful for its gardens and marvellous adornment, lived Nehushta, the last of the descendants of Jehoiakim the king remaining in Media; she was the fairest of all the women in Media, of royal blood and of more than royal beauty. ”

“ Have you not all that the world holds for mortal woman and living man? Do you not love, and are you not loved in return? Have you not all—all—all? Ah! woe is me that I am lord over the nations, and have not a drop of the waters of peace wherewith to quench the thirst of my tormented soul! Woe is me that I rule the world and trample the whole earth beneath my feet, and cannot have the one thing that all the earth holds which is good! Woe is me, Nehushta, that you have cruelly stolen my peace from me, and I find it not—nor shall find it for evermore! ”

“ I think he will more likely take one of your people for his close friend than trust to the princes. As for our journey, we must depart betimes, or the king will have gone before us from Shushan to Stakhar in the south, where they say he will build himself a royal dwelling and stay in the coming winter time. Prepare yourself for the journey, therefore, my princess, lest anything be forgotten and you should be deprived of what you need for any time."
"I am never deprived of what I need," said Nehushta, half in pride and half in jest. ”

“ You must be very glad to have come here!"
"It is true," replied Nehushta, "I never ceased to dream of Shushan. I love the great city, and the people, and the court. I thought sometimes that I should have died of the weariness of Ecbatana. The winters were unbearable!"
"You must learn to love us, too," said Atossa, very sweetly. "The Great King wishes well to your race, and will certainly do much for your country. There is, moreover, a kinsman of yours, who is coming soon, expressly to confer with the king concerning the further rebuilding of the temple and the city of Jerusalem." ”

“ Babylon has rebelled; the empire is far from settled. All Persia may be on the very point of a revolt."
"A fitting time indeed for our journey—for me and my women to be travelling abroad with a score of horsemen for a guard! Why did you bring me here? How long are we to remain encamped by the roadside, waiting the pleasure of the populace to let us in, or the convenience of this new king to return?"
Nehushta turned upon her companion as she spoke, and there was a ring of mingled scorn and disappointment in her voice. ”

“ But if he loved Atossa, she loved him as well. She said so, cried it aloud upon the terrace where any one might have heard it. Why then had he left the court, and hidden himself so long in the wilderness? Why, before going out on his wanderings, had he disguised himself, and gone and stood where the procession passed, and hissed out a bitter insult as Nehushta went by? For her sake he had abandoned his brilliant life these three years, to dwell in the desert, to grow so thin and miserable of aspect that he looked like an old man. ”

“ She sprang up, and faced him with glowing cheeks and flashing eyes; and as she stood she was nearly as tall as he.
"I would not that a princess of thy line kneeled before me," said he; and in his voice there was a strange touch of softness. "Wilt thou let me rest here awhile before I go up to Shushan? I am weary of riding and thirsty from the road."
"Hail, king of the world! I am thy servant. Rest thee and refresh thee here," answered Nehushta, drawing back into the tent. The king beckoned to Zoroaster to follow him and went in. ”

“ Further, that the Christians were a good people, and that there was much in their doctrines which tallied with their own. Next, one made a strange objection—namely, that if they adopted this child they would learn to love it too much, who should love God and their order only. To this another answered, Nay, they should love all mankind, and especially the helpless.
“Mankind, not womankind,” was the reply; “for this infant will grow into a woman.”
Now they desired Nehushta to retire that they might take the votes. ”

“ In Jehoiachin's case we do not know what his transgressions were, but perhaps his mother's influence rendered him as little favourable to the prophetic party as his brother Jehoiakim had been. For the Gebîrah was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. Her name means apparently "Brass," and nothing can be deduced from it; but her father Elnathan was (as we [Pg 432] have seen) the envoy who, by order of Jehoiakim, had dragged back from Egypt the martyr-prophet Urijah. ”

“ It would weary you to travel more than seven or eight farsangs in a day's journey—indeed, that is a long distance for any one."
"We shall always be together, shall we not?" asked the princess.
"I will ride beside your litter, my beloved," said Zoroaster. "But it will be very tedious for you, and you will often be tired. The country is very wild in some parts, and we must trust to what we can take with us for our comfort. Do not spare the mules, therefore, but take everything you need."
"Besides, we may not return," said Nehushta thoughtfully. ”

“ Nehushtan. 5He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. 6For he cleaved to the Lord, he departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. 7And the Lord was with him: whithersoever he went forth he prospered; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. 8He smote the Philistines unto Gaza and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city. ”

“ Jehoahaz, or Shallum, his third son, a wicked young man, only reigned while Necho was fighting a battle with the Babylonians on the Euphrates, and then was carried off in chains to Egypt, while Necho set up Eliakim, or Jehoiakim, another brother, in his stead. Jehoiakim was idolatrous, cruel, and violent; he persecuted the prophets, and did everything to draw on himself the punishment of Heaven. Necho, making another invasion, was defeated by the great Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and hunted back by him into Egypt. ”

“ They answered: 'We are not of the race of the people of Babbulkund, but were captured in youth and taken away from the hills that are to the northward. Now we have all seen in visions of the stillness the Lord the God of our people calling to us from His hills, and therefore we all flee northward. But in Babbulkund King Nehemoth hath been troubled in the nights by unkingly dreams of doom, and none may interpret what the dreams portend. Now this is the dream that King Nehemoth dreamed on the first night of his dreaming. ”

“ Chapter 1 1 Words of Nehemiah son of Hachaliah. And it comes to pass, in the month of Chisleu, the twentieth year, and I have been in Shushan the palace, 2 and Hanani, one of my brothers, he and men of Judah come in, and I ask them concerning the Jews, the escaped part that have been left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem; 3 and they say to me, "Those left, who have been left of the captivity there in the province, [are] in great evil, and in reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." ”

“ Nefesh-Ruach, as Nefesh is the wick (o.v. since she is partnered with the body) , Ruach is the olive, Neshama - "the Ner of Hashem is the Neshama of man" (Prov. 20:27) , (Adam is the light of the lamp, in him shines the written Torah, and the Neshama which is Ner, in her shines Miswa. But when light and lamp doesn't shine in her it's said of the Neshama (Song 1:6) , "Don't look at me, for I'm blacked out," and it's said of man (Isa. 50:3) , "I'll don dark skies") . And what's Ne"R? Nefesh-Ruach, N' Nefesh R' Ruach, corresponding to these three rings ”

“ Come and behold: the Neshamah emerges (from male and female of Atzilut) , and it passes through mountains of separation (into Briyah, Yetzirah and Asiyah) . There, the Ruach connects to the Neshamah. The Neshamah descends further down toward and the Nefesh, joins the Ruach, and they all connect with each other. Rabbi Yehuda said: The Nefesh and the Ruach are included one with the other (when someone is born) . The Neshamah resides in a man's ways. The Neshamah resides in a secret compartment, whose location is unknown.
A person who comes to purify himself is aided with a holy Neshamah. ”

“ For more than a century after the death of Nehemiah, the inner life of the Judæan nation might have been likened to that of a caterpillar weaving the threads which enshroud it from the juices of its own body, while the world knew it as a martyr, bearing insult and humiliation alike in silence. During that period it had not produced any one man, who, by reason of his own strong individuality, had been able to bring into play the reserve force of the nation; no one had arisen capable of pointing the way and arousing enthusiasm. ”

“ The secret of all secrets is passed on to those who are wise in their hearts. There are three levels that are attached to each other, and they are Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshamah. Nefesh is the force from which the body is built. When a man is aroused in this world to mate with his wife, all parts of the body agree on this and are prepared to receive enjoyment from it. ”

“ Lower and lower sinks the sun, till Nehemoth, following it, comes with his panting slaves to the great purple garden of which surely thine own country has its songs, from wherever thou art come.
'There he alights from his palanquin and goes up to a throne of ivory set in the garden's midst, facing full westwards, and sits there alone, long regarding the sunlight until it is quite gone. At this hour trouble comes into the face of Nehemoth. Men have heard him muttering at the time of sunset: 'Even I too, even I too.' Thus do King Nehemoth and the sun make their glorious ambits about Babbulkund. ”