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© Copyright 2003 Richard S. Barnett  
 

OTHNEIL

The Force of God

Chapter Eleven

 

by Richard S. Barnett

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN


The Lord was with us that night, Ehud. Your father led his men and mine between Arbok's patrols and Monument City, and Gedawr brought many of his men to help them. They had been waiting for my signal and setting traps for Highborn when they saw the all the ravens and crows gathering like smoke over the city and then the flames of Arbok's hall.
Gera arrived long before Arbok's troops, and after we took the city, we camped outside Debir to lie in wait for the Highborn patrols. They came in the dead of night, but we attacked them from behind when they set fire to the Canaanite huts outside the city and tried to enter the city. We trapped them between ourselves and the Canaanites.
After that, the rest of Arbok's army just ran away, even though they far outnumbered us. They all went down to serve the kings of cities on the coastal plains because they had nowhere else to go.
Arbok died a few days later of the sickness that made him so yellow. Rifaz told me he had a wasting disease of the liver. When Caleb came to see the city ten days later, he said it was the Lord's judgment. We let Arbok's woman go free after taking her gold and jewels.
I can't tell you of my relief that Gera brought my own clothing with him to Monument City. It was a delight to wear real clothes again and a cap to shield my head from the sun. Even after the summer's heat has passed in this land, the sun still scorches a bare head.
Gedawr and Kenabi had gone to tell Caleb about the battle, and he came to see Monument City for himself, bringing families who were ready to settle. We had already thrown down Anath's treaty stone and the other standing stones, forced our captives to smash them, and cast the pieces outside the city walls. The prisoners wanted to heap the pieces on Arbok's grave, but I wouldn't let them. I didn't mind letting his wretched bones rest in peace but I wouldn't let them keep his memory alive or the memory of any of the other sons of Arbah.
"Well, my son," Caleb told me after he had seen Monument City and heard all the battle stories, "You have won a bride, and she has already picked out her dowry. She went down into the Southland to find a piece of arable land not far from here. When she came back, I knew by the way she jumped off her donkey that she wanted something more.
"I said to her, 'What do you want, my daughter?'
"She said to me, 'Father, do me a special favor! Since you have given me land in the Southland, give me springs of water also.'
"Now, my son, don't you think it's well that your bride knows the worth of water?"
My heart swelled with joy to hear Caleb. Not only did he mean to keep his promise and grant me his daughter, but Acsah herself had agreed to his promise. She was already looking ahead with more foresight and wisdom than I had to beginning a new life!
I didn't dare ask Caleb how he answered Acsah, so I mumbled, "Praise the Lord!"
"She spoke wisely, my son, and we stopped to look over her land on the way here. I have given her the water rights to the two best springs in that valley. They'll never run dry"
I felt my heart racing as I asked, "Did you bring Acsah with you, sir?"
Caleb laughed. "No, my son. Her brothers Kenash and Gedawr have escorted her back to Hebron. She'll be safe with them, and she has a feast to prepare."
"A wedding feast? Already?" I asked. "But what about my--?"
"How long do you think your Benjaminite friends can wait for you to grow a new beard, my son? Don't they have families, fields, and flocks waiting for them?"
"I'd forgotten them," I admitted.
"We should never take our friends for granted," Caleb reminded me. "I'm glad that Gedawr has become your friend, too. He has been a different man ever since you rescued him from the Highborn. He's more like a wise old dog than a puppy now."
"Do you think Kenabi can also change?" I asked him. “We ought to be friends; we're the last of my father's house."
Caleb made a face. "Well," he admitted, "the fellow still thinks my daughter belongs to him."
"How could he?" I asked, feeling myself flush with anger. "He'd be dead now if we hadn't saved him!"
"There now, my son," Caleb said as calmly as he could, "I know that you and your friends captured Arbah City, but Kenabi says it was only your place as his brother to help him and that he fought as hard as anyone against the Highborn. He says that as the elder son of your family he has the first claim on Acsah."
"What gall! You won't let him do that, will you, sir?"
"The Lord forbid, and Acsah too, my son. That won't keep Kenabi from making trouble, however. He's probably pleading his case to every elder he can find."
My day had turned grey and bleak, and I felt something crushing my insides.
"Othniel, my son, you’re too grim for a bridegroom. My daughter has no use for any man who lets hate and anger rule him. You must never get your brother's blood on your hands, no matter what he does. Besides losing everything, every man will be against you for the rest of your days."
He paused and turned to look me in the eye, laying a hand on my shoulder.
"No, my son, if your heart is clean, you will trust this matter to the Lord. He will be with you, and so will I and all my house. Do you believe me? Will you trust me?"
Everything inside me ached to rush off in search of Kenabi. At the same time, I knew I couldn't. I felt weak and shaky. Only the weight of Caleb's hand helped me to decide.
"The Lord has brought me this far," I told Caleb. "I'm in His hands."
Caleb crushed me with a hug of joy. "You're a son after my own heart," he told me. "Praise the Lord!"
Two days later Caleb and I returned to Hebron with Rifaz, Gera's men, and my men. Instead of a welcome at the gateway, we met Kenabi and a crowd of his friends. They had all been drinking and had worked themselves into an ugly state. Kenabi looked as clean and well groomed as if he had never faced death as Arbok’s prisoner, and his words were just as smooth and polished.
Kenabi stood in Caleb's way and demanded Acsah without even a word of greeting to him. "I'm in the right, and I appeal my case to the elders of Judah. I will have justice, sir, and they must hear me."
His friends made loud and threatening noises and almost rioted on the spot.
"If you weren't my sister's son, I would thrash you," Caleb answered. "Nevertheless, you shall have your justice, no matter whose son you are. Come here at sundown!"
Caleb called for all the elders and leaders of hundreds in Hebron and nearby, and they came to witness the gathering outside the gateway while dusk settled on the land and the stars took their places. I hadn't yet seen Acsah and wondered where she was. Rifaz found out that she would stay out of sight until the wedding feast, as brides should do. "They say it's bad luck for you to see her until her father gives her away," he warned me. I wondered if I would ever see her again as I waited for the council to begin.
The elders and leaders of hundreds sat with Caleb in a circle in the open space outside the gateway, quietly talking and enjoying their barley cakes and strips of roast mutton when Kenabi strode into their midst. His friends waited in a group on one side of the circle. Rifaz, Gera, and our men waited with me on the other side. We watched as Kenabi flung one of his sandals down before the elders.
"I cry out to you, O Israel;
Hear my cause, elders of Judah!"

Everyone waited in silence, stunned by Kenabi's lack of manners. One elder beckoned to Kenabi to sit down with them.
"I cannot sit down with the wicked," Kenabi answered, "Nor can I pitch my tent among evildoers."
A Levite spoke up and told Kenabi to sit down or leave. "If you have a just cause, speak, but you may not presume to stand in judgment over us," he warned.
Kenabi made a face but sat down anyway, satisfied for the moment with insulting Caleb and me. He began speaking in a gentle voice that built slowly in strength and feeling. "I have come before you to claim the hand of Acsah bit Caleb, according to the promise of Caleb ben Jephunneh which he freely gave to my brother Shabab. Caleb promised Acsah to him in return for the capture of Monument City. Shabab died in battle, but we of Shabab's house have given Monument City to Caleb, and I come before you as his heir and the inheritor of the promise.
"Caleb has not kept his promise and he wants to give his daughter to another man who has bribed him!
"Hear my plea, O Israel,
and let my cause find favor in your eyes.
O elders of Judah, be gracious to me,
for I walk before you in truth on level ground."

Kenabi's men shouted their agreement.
Caleb closed his eyes and bowed his head for a moment before answering in a calm and level voice:
"My brothers in Israel, you've heard the twisted words of an angry man whose bitterness has overcome his reason and hidden the truth from him. Now hear this, I never go back on my word. Are there not seventy times seven men in Judah alone who can bear witness? Moreover, I made no covenant with Shabab. I said these words in the hearing of all the people: 'I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.' I made an open promise.
"Next, all of you know that neither Shabab nor Kenabi overcame the Highborn or captured Monument City. Every man here also knows that Kenabi takes his place here before you only because Othniel freed him from the Highborn. Othniel has never lifted his hand against Kenabi, nor did he withhold his hand when he could have let the Highborn slay him."
Caleb paused as the men murmured in agreement.
"You have heard the truth, and you know that the Lord is my witness before all Israel. You know that Kenabi has no claim against me. He has inherited nothing and won nothing. Let no man ever dare to say that Caleb ben Jephunneh goes back on his word or that he takes bribes. I place my cause in your hands."
Kenabi's men shouted in anger until the Levite told them to be silent while the elders spoke among themselves. They obeyed, though still muttering and grumbling, until the elders rose to give their judgment.
"We find for Caleb," they declared.
Kenabi's men began shouting again before the elders could say another word, and they started to surround them, but Caleb made a sign and Kenash and Gedawr led their men in holding them back.
Caleb raised his hand to command silence. "Let there be no uproar," he said. "Let's do all things among ourselves with peace and fairness, as befits those who serve the one Lord God who has given us just laws to live by."
My men and I joined everyone in shouting our approval. Kenabi was still with Caleb and the group of elders and leaders. His eyes glittered with menace and he shook with fury as he told Caleb, "You have cheated me. This judgment cannot stand."
Caleb tried to soothe him. "Threats will gain you nothing," he warned Kenabi. "Be calm and hold your tongue while you still have friends in Israel."
Kenabi only grew angrier. "Who needs friends like you?" he yelled. "I curse the lot of you--and your daughter and her lapdog!"
He turned and stalked away with his friends, who were shouting drunken threats with a lot of loud and raucous laughter.
"Your brother came close to a stoning," Caleb told me later. "Your father and my sister would grieve to know they brought such a rebellious son into the world. At least, they could never find fault with you, Othniel. They would be proud of you. Let the wedding feast begin."
The music and dancing began that night. I didn't see Acsah until the next afternoon. Gera, Rifaz, and all of our friends came to the house where I had bathed myself and dressed in borrowed finery. They carried me on their shoulders towards Caleb's tent outside the city, and Gera walked beside me. Most of them had brought their spears and other weapons and were alert for trouble.
Caleb had pitched his camp in the terebinths grove by the well. I saw a canopy of colored cloth pitched in an open space. All the unmarried girls walked out of the camp to welcome us, singing and shaking their tambourines in joy. One girl placed a wreath of jasmine on my head, and others sprinkled me with perfume until I sneezed.
"You need those flowers. May they last until your hair grows back!" Gera laughed.
When we came to the canopy, my friends put me down and Caleb came forth from his tent with my bride. She was dressed in the brightest blues and greens I had ever seen and draped with so many veils she had to hold tightly onto Caleb's arm to keep from stumbling. A chain of gold bound a wreath of lilies to her head, and I could tell she was laden with bracelets and necklaces. It was too wonderful to be true. Was she really Acsah? I greeted her,
"Who is this that appears like the dawn,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
and majestic as the stars in procession?"

Acsah laughed softly and teased me by replying, "Who's this that appears like a shorn lamb?"
Acsah drew aside her veils and held out both hands to me. I'll never forget the sweetness of her voice and her loveliness as she looked at me and declared for everyone to hear,
"This is my beloved, the one my heart loves,
O daughters of Israel.
I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine."