Authors: José Saramago
The place is the
same, but the present has changed. Cain
sees
before him the city of jericho, which, for reasons of
military security, he has not been allowed to enter. The
attack
by joshua's army is expected at any
moment, and, however
vehemently
cain assured them that he was not an israelite,
they continued to deny him access, especially since he could
give no satisfactory answer to the question, What are you
then, if you're not an israelite. When cain was born, there
was no such thing as the israelites, and when, much later,
they came into existence, with the sometimes disastrous
consequences with which we are familiar, the censuses
carried out omitted the family of adam. Cain was not an
israelite, but neither was he a hittite, an amorite, a
perizzite,
a hivite or a jebusite. He was
saved from this lack of definition by a farrier from joshua's army, who fell
in love with
cain's donkey, That's a fine animal
you've got there, He's
been
with me since I left the land of nod and he's never let
me down yet, Well, in that case, if you agree, I'll take you
on as my assistant on a bed and board basis, on condition
that you let me ride your donkey now and then. Cain thought
this a reasonable proposal, but asked, And afterwards, After
what, asked the
other man, After jericho falls, Oh, jericho
is just the beginning, afterwards there'll be a long war of
conquest during which farriers will be as necessary as
soldiers, In that case, I accept, said cain. He had heard
tell,
from those who had known her, of a
famous prostitute who
lived
in jericho, a certain rahab, whom he longed to meet
so as to refresh his blood, for he hadn't had a woman under
him since the last night he spent with lilith. And despite
not
being allowed into jericho, he
still did not give up all hope
of
sleeping with her. The farrier informed the necessary
people that he had taken on an unpaid assistant, and thus
cain became a member of the support services of joshua's
army, entrusted, under the watchful eye of his boss, with
the task of treating the saddle sores of donkeys and asses,
donkeys and asses and nothing else, you understand, for a
cavalry worthy of the name had not yet been invented. After
what seemed to everyone an excessively long wait, they were
told that the lord had finally spoken to joshua, to whom he
had said the following, word for word, For six days, you and
your soldiers will march round the city once a day, and seven
priests will go ahead of the ark of the covenant, bearing
seven ram's horn trumpets, and on the seventh day, you will
march round the city seven times and the priests will sound
their trumpets, and when they sound a much longer blast,
the people must shout with a great shout and then the walls
of the city will fall down. Contrary to what a perfectly
legitimate scepticism might expect, that is exactly what happened.
On the seventh day of that never-before-tried tactic, the
walls
really did fall down and the
soldiers poured into the city
through
whatever opening lay before them, and jericho was
taken. They destroyed everything, putting to the sword men
and women, young and old, even oxen and sheep and asses.
When cain finally entered the city, the prostitute rahab had
vanished with all her family, for they had been taken to a
place of safety as a reward for the help she gave to the lord
when she hid the two spies joshua had sent into jericho.
When he heard this, cain lost all interest in her. Despite
his own reprehensible past, he hated traitors, who were, in
his
opinion, the lowest of the low.
Joshua's soldiers set fire to
the
city and burned everything in it, apart from the silver
and gold and the vessels of brass and of iron, which, as
usual, were added to the treasury of the house of the lord.
That was when joshua issued a second threat, Cursed be the
man who rebuilds the city of jericho, death to the eldest son
of he who lays the foundations and to the youngest son of
the man who sets up the gates. At the time, curses were real
literary works of art, both in the force of their intention
and in the language in which they were couched, had joshua
not been the ruthless person he was, we might almost take
him as a stylistic model, at least as regards the important
rhetorical chapter on curses and maledictions, so little read
in modern times. From there, the israelite army marched
on the all too appropriately named city of ai, where, after
suffering the humiliation of a defeat, the israelites learned
that you don't mess around with the lord god. For a man
called achan had taken certain things from jericho that had
been condemned to be destroyed and, as a consequence, the
anger of the lord was kindled against the israelites, This
will
not do, he cried, whoever disobeys
my orders is condemned.
Meanwhile,
joshua, led astray by erroneous information
given to him by the spies he had sent to ai, made the mistake
of underestimating the strength of his adversary and sent
fewer than three thousand men into battle, and they, attacked
and pursued by the inhabitants of the city, were forced to
flee. The israelites lost the will to fight, as has always
happened at the slightest defeat and although they no longer
show their dismay in quite the same way as in the days of
joshua, rending their clothes and falling to the ground and
covering their heads in dust, some verbal wailing is
inevitable.
It is evident from joshua's pleas
and complaints and questions that the lord did a very bad job of bringing
these
people up. Why did you have us cross
the jordan, was it in
order
to deliver us into the hands of the amorites, to destroy
us, it would have been far better if we had stayed on the
other side. It was clearly absurd for this same joshua to
lose
his head over the loss of a mere
thirty-six soldiers, the
number
killed in the attempted attack on ai, when, after
every battle, he leaves behind him a trail of many thousands
of enemy corpses. And he went on, O lord, if israel flees its
enemies, the canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land
shall hear of it and will attack us and destroy us, and no
one will remember us, what will you do to defend our great
name, he asked. The lord did not appear in person or in
the form of a column of smoke this time, and so one imagines
that he was merely a voice thundering out into space
and echoing around the mountains and the valleys, saying,
The israelites have sinned, you have broken the covenant
I made with you,
you have taken things that were destined
to
be destroyed, you have stolen them and hidden them and
put them among your baggage. The voice grew louder, That
is why you could not resist your enemies, because you, too,
were condemned to be destroyed, and I will not take your
side again until you destroy that which, though condemned
to destruction, is still in your possession, up, joshua, and
summon the people, the man who is found to have taken
those things will be burned along with everything he has,
family and goods. Early the next morning, joshua gave orders
for the people to come before him, household by household.
Questions, enquiries and denunciations finally led him
to a man called achan, the son of carmi, the son of zabdi,
the
son of serah, of the tribe of
judah. Joshua addressed him in
gentle,
mellifluous tones, saying, My son, give glory to the
lord and make confession to him, tell me what you have
done, hide nothing from me. Cain, who was watching along
with the others, thought, They're sure to pardon him, joshua
wouldn't speak to him like that if he was going to condemn
him. Meanwhile, achan was saying, It's true, I have sinned
against the lord god of israel, Speak, tell me everything,
joshua urged him, When I saw among the spoils a beautiful
babylonian cloak, and nearly two hundred shekels of silver
and a wedge of gold nearly fifty shekels in weight, then I
coveted them and took them, Tell me, where are those things
now, asked joshua, They are buried in the earth beneath my
tent, and the silver under them. Having wheedled this confession
out of him, joshua sent some men to search the tent where
they found the stolen items, with the silver underneath, just
as achan had said. They took them and brought them to
joshua and to all the israelites and placed them before the
lord, or, rather, before the ark of the covenant that stood
for him. Joshua then took achan with the silver, the cloak
and the wedge of gold, along with his sons and daughters,
and his oxen and his asses and his sheep, his tent and all
that he had, and led them to the valley of achor. When they
arrived, joshua said, You were the cause of our misfortune,
because of you, thirty-six israelites died, may the lord now
be the cause of your misfortune. Then the other israelites
stoned achan and threw him into the fire, together with his
family and all that they had. Then they raised over him a
great heap of stones which is there to this day. For that
reason, the place was called the valley of achor, which means
misfortune. The lord's anger was assuaged, but, before the
people dispersed, his stentorian voice rang out again, Be
warned, he who offends me will pay, for I am the lord.
In order to take
the city, joshua chose thirty thousand
men
of valour and instructed them as to the ambush they
should prepare, a strategy that, this time, would meet with
success, first, a ruse to divide the forces in the city and
then
an unstoppable attack on two
fronts. Twelve thousand men
and
women died that day, the whole population of ai, for
no one escaped and there was not one survivor. Joshua
ordered the king of ai to be hanged from a tree until
eventide.
At sunset, he ordered his carcass
to be taken down from the
tree
and deposited at the entrance to the city. They raised
upon him a great heap of stones, which is also there to this
day. Despite the many years that have passed, one might still
perhaps find a few pebbles, one here, another over there,
that will serve to confirm the truth of this regrettable
story,
drawn from very ancient documents.
After what had just
happened
and remembering what had happened before, the
destruction of sodom and gomorrah and the attack on
jericho, cain made a decision and went to tell his boss, the
farrier, I'm leaving, he said, I can't bear the sight of so
many
deaths, so much blood spilled, so
much wailing and gnashing
of
teeth, give me back my donkey, I need him for the journey,
You're making a mistake, from now on, the cities will fall
one after the other, it will be more like a triumphal procession,
and as for the donkey, if you were minded to sell him
to me, I would be delighted to buy him, No, said cain, as I
said, I need him, I wouldn't get very far on foot, What if I
were to find you another one, for free, No, I came here with
my donkey and I will leave with him, said cain, and putting
his hand inside his tunic, he drew out a knife, I want that
donkey now, this instant, otherwise, I'll kill you, But you
would die too, We would both die, but you would die first,
Wait for me here, I'll go and fetch him, said the farrier,
Don't
try any tricks on me, you know very
well that you wouldn't
come
back alone, we'll both go, you and I, but remember,
one wrong word from you and you'll feel this knife slip in
between your ribs. The farrier was afraid that cain's anger
might cause him to move from threat to deed, and it would
be foolish to lose one's life over a donkey, however handsome
a beast it might be. The two of them went together,
they saddled up the donkey, cain was given some of the food
being prepared for the soldiers, and when his saddlebags
were good and full, he said to the farrier, Up you get, this
will be your last ride on my donkey. Surprised, the man had
no option but to obey, then cain jumped up behind him,
and, in no time at all, they had left the encampment. Where
are you taking me, asked the farrier anxiously, As I said,
answered cain, for a ride. They rode and rode and when the
tents were almost out of sight, cain said, Off you get. The
farrier obeyed, but when he saw that cain was spurring
the donkey on to continue his journey, he asked in alarm,
What about me, what shall I do, Do what you like, but, if
I were you, I'd go back to the encampment, It's a very long
way, You won't get lost, just follow the columns of smoke
that continue to rise from the city. And with that victory,
cain's military career came to an end. He missed the conquest
of the cities of makkedah, libnah, lachish, eglon, hebron and
debir, where, once again, all the inhabitants were massacred,
and to judge by the legend passed down from generation
to generation until today, he also missed the greatest
miracle
of all times, when the lord made
the sun stop so that joshua
could
win the battle, in daylight, against the five amorite
kings. Apart from the inevitable and, by now, monotonous
toll of deaths and casualties, apart from the usual destructions
and even more usual fires, it's rather a fine story, illustrating the power of
a god for whom, it would seem, nothing
is
impossible. All lies. The truth is that when joshua saw
that the sun was going down and that the creeping shadows
of the night would protect what remained of the amorite
army, he raised his arms to heaven, with words ready
prepared for posterity on his lips, but, at that moment, he
heard a voice whisper in his ear, Silence, don't speak, say
nothing, meet me alone, with no witnesses, in the tent of
the ark of the covenant, we need to talk. Joshua obediently
handed over operations to his second in command and
hurried to the meeting place. He sat down on a stool and
said, Here I am, lord, let me know thy will, You were probably
thinking, said the lord, who was inside the ark, of asking
me to stop the sun, Yes, lord, so that no amorite will escape
us, Unfortunately, I cannot do as you ask. Joshua opened
his mouth wide in amazement, You can't make the sun stop,
he asked, and his voice trembled because he believed he was
uttering a terrible heresy, No, I can't stop the sun because
it's already stopped, it hasn't moved since I put it there,
You
are the lord, and therefore cannot
be wrong, but that isn't
what
my eyes see, the sun is born over there, travels all day
across the sky and disappears over the other side until it
returns the following morning, Something moves, but it's
not the sun, it's the earth, The earth doesn't move, lord,
said
joshua in a tense, desperate voice,
Your eyes are deluding
you,
the earth does move, it turns on itself and also turns
in space around the sun, In that case, order the earth to
stop, it doesn't matter to me whether it's the sun that stops
or the earth, just as long as I can destroy the amorites, If
I
were to stop the earth, not only
the amorites would be
destroyed,
but the world itself, mankind, everything, all the
creatures and every living thing on earth, even many trees,
despite the roots that anchor them in the soil, everything
would be hurled off like a stone from a sling, But I thought
the workings of the world depended entirely on your will,
lord, Yes, I've been using my will rather too much, as have
others in my name, that's why there is so much discontent,
people turning their backs on me, some even denying my
existence, Punish them, They're beyond my jurisdiction, out
of my control, the life of a god isn't as easy as you all
think,
a god cannot, as people imagine,
simply say I want, I can
and
I command, and he can't always get what he wants
straight away, but has to go round in circles first, it's
true
that I placed that mark on the
forehead of cain, whom you've
never
seen and don't even know, but what I can't understand is why I don't have the
power to stop him going where
his
will takes him and doing whatever he wishes, And what
about us, now, asked joshua, his mind still fixed on the
amorites, You will do exactly what you had already decided
to do, I wouldn't want to take from you the glory of speaking
directly to god, And what will you do, lord, Oh, I'll clear
the
sky of the clouds currently
covering it, that's easy enough,
but
it's up to you to win the battle, With your encouragement, the battle will be
over before the sun has set, Fine,
given
that I cannot do the impossible, I will do the possible.
Interpreting these words as a dismissal, joshua got up from
the stool, but the lord went on, Tell no one what has passed
between us, the story that is told in the future should be
ours and no other, joshua asked the lord to stop the sun
and the lord did as he asked, that's all, My lips will remain
sealed except to confirm that story, lord, Right, go and
finish
off those amorites for me. Joshua
returned to the army, went
up
to the top of a hill and again raised his arms, O lord, he
cried, lord of heaven, of the world and of israel, make the
sun stand still in the west, so that your will can be done,
give me one more hour of light, just one hour, so that the
amorites cannot hide themselves like the cowards they are
and so that your soldiers can find them in the darkness and
administer your justice and take their lives. In reply, the
voice of god thundered forth from the now cloudless sky,
terrifying the amorites and emboldening the israelites, The
sun will not move from where it is, in order to witness the
battle of the israelites for the promised land, now, joshua,
vanquish those five amorite kings defying me, and canaan
will be the ripe fruit that will shortly fall into your
hands,
onwards then, and let no amorite
survive the blade of the
israelite
sword. Some say that joshua's plea to the lord was
simpler than that, more direct, that he said only, Sun, stand
thou still upon gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of
ajalon, which shows that joshua had accepted that he would
have to fight after sunset and with only a pale moon to guide
the points of sword and spear to the throats of the amorites.
While this is an interesting version, it doesn't change
the essence of the story, namely, that the amorites were
roundly defeated and all credit for the victory went to the
lord, who, having made the sun stop, did not need to wait for
the moon. To every saint his candle, as is only right. Here
is what was written in a book called just, whose whereabouts
no one knows. The sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and
hasted not to go down for about a whole day, and there was
no day like that before it or after it, that the lord
hearkened
to the voice of a man, for the lord
fought for israel.