Ephron Son of Zohar Read online

Chapter Four Preparations

  Akiia offered the morning sacrifice of a male goat. The altar of uncut stones was slightly more than two cubits high. After prayers to Adonai, he evenly distributed the goat meat. There was very little for each person to eat. It was supplemented with barley cakes and some of the meat Yovov brought. The pot with mostly vegetables was available for anyone still hungry.

  Zohar’s tribe sat for meals by families, children with their mothers and fathers. The unmarried adults sat wherever there was room, but usually sat with their parents. The wooden planked benches could slide under the smooth stone tables. Though the tables were too big to easily move, most of the short, backless wooden benches could easily be carried by two people. Two to four people could sit on one bench and they could be placed end-to-end. The dining area stood in the east where two walls met, making a corner about 120 degrees. A thick mobile wall on one side provided complete protection from the wind when it was connected to the small oven. The oven acted as a wall and with the mobile wall kept the room warm in the winter. The mobile wall had an ornately-carved wooden frame, leather on both sides, and was filled with many years worth of old leather scraps for insulation. The leather panels had geometric patterns in a variety of colors on both sides. Even with the mobile wall in place, there was still an open side, though it was sheltered from the prevailing winds. A single thick piece of leather was sewn to the roof on the open side, between the main stone wall of the village and the oven. It could be closed in cold weather and propped open in the summer as an awning. Though it was thick, it could be rolled up and fastened to the roof if the awning was not needed. Completely enclosed, the dining area could only seat about two hundred people. But it could easily seat five hundred people when opened all the way by removing the mobile wall and opening the leather awning.

  When Ephron finished, he washed his utensils, put the lanyard around his neck, and moved to the back corner where the walls, floor, and ceiling would amplify his speech.

  “By noon today we should have over nine hundred guests, the tribe of our uncle Anah. We will work with them as we have in the past. They will pitch their tents outside the walls. Tomorrow by noon field-dressed gazelles should begin arriving. If anyone needs help, I will find you some help. Please understand! I will not be helping you. I will find someone to help you.”

  The tribe laughed as they rose to their respective duties.

  “Why did Ephron speak to the tribe?” Yovov asked Zohar. “That should be your job.”

  Zohar looked around and spoke in a low voice. “I am not able to.”

  “Our father Anah is more than three times your age,” said Yovov.

  “I use dyes,” said Zohar. “Otherwise my hair would be completely white. Without treatments of oils and moisturizers, my skin would be wrinkled.”

  “But you’re such a young man,” said Yovov. “You’re about forty years younger than I am. How old are you? Seventy?”

  “About that,” said Zohar. He sat down in a large chair with a solid wood frame and thick brown leather with soft sheepskin on the seat and back. The evidence of weakness was obvious when he sat. His back was bent and his eyes were cloudy.

  Yovov bent down and looked at him carefully. “You were healthy last year at this time. What happened?”

  “I do not know,” said Zohar. “Sometimes I feel fine. But other times, like today, I am so weak, I cannot stand for more than a few minutes.”

  “I have never seen anything like this,” said Yovov.

  “Nor I,” said Ephron. He walked up with his mother Nebajoth. “As you can see, my mother is still able to bear children. We have no idea what happened in this last year.”

  “You need an Egyptian doctor,” said Shelometh. “Or a Chaldean. The Chaldeans and the Egyptians are excellent physicians.”

  “No physician can undo what has already been done,” said Zohar. “How could we pay a physician?”

  “You remain poor,” said Yovov, “when this village could become a wealthy trading hub. Perhaps even the greatest city on earth.”

  “We remain faithful to Adonai Elohim of Noah,” said Zohar. “How long would faithfulness to Adonai last as a wealthy trading hub?”

  “You know that this is not going to last much longer, whatever you choose,” said Yovov. “Do you speak for your entire tribe? Or is everyone going to do what is right in their own eyes? Are you preparing someone to take your place? Or will you, like the cities of Nimrod, start fighting among yourselves?”

  Zohar slumped in his seat, looking even more tired. “I have chosen Ephron, though he is not the oldest. There has not been enough time. This came on so fast.”

  “Zohar,” asked Yovov. “Did you talk about your choices with your wife, your sons, or anyone else?”

  “Some, with my wife,” said Zohar. “I will probably not be alive by the time these marauders arrive. I do not want to make decisions for others when I will not be able to bear the responsibility for my decision.”

  “Will you accept and support my decision?” asked Ephron.

  “Yes,” said Zohar.

  “Then we fortify the walls,” said Ephron. “And we ask the caravans to come here.”

  “My son,” said Zohar. “Do not become what you are fighting against. Never abandon Adonai Elohim of Noah. Take care of the poor. Never mistreat a stranger.”

  “Ephron!” the cry came across the courtyard. “We need at least two more tanning racks. Three would be better.”

  “Working on it,” Ephron cried back. “Shelometh, Elon, you are both skilled with axes. We have felled logs but we did not know where they would be needed. Can you help us out?”

  “Certainly,” said Elon. “But we did not bring any tools. And I thought I was returning home to bring everyone back here?”

  Ephron began walking over to the blacksmith to select tools. Two of his brothers and a sister, all older than Ephron, worked the smelter.

  “I decided after the attack yesterday that one person by himself was not safe,” said Ephron. “Dumu and Taku left well before dawn. I decided that an early ride was safer. They should deliver the message, water and rest their horses, then head right back. I also suggested, not told, Anah that he should break camp and set up camp here. We know that your tribe, the sons of Anah, were planning on breaking camp anyway.”

  “Did you ask Zohar about any of these decisions?” asked Elon.

  “No,” said Ephron. “But I do not expect Zohar to object. In fact, I will be very surprised if my father even realizes that Dumu and Taku even left.”

  “Do you disrespect your father?” asked Shelometh.

  “I both love and respect my father,” said Ephron.

  Shelometh grabbed a few leather for tying the poles together straps from an enormous pile of leather straps and a small, very sharp ax. The first straps were far to long, so she tossed those back onto the pile. Shelometh then sorted through the enormous mound of leather straps and ropes for shorter straps.

  “The other pile,” said Ephron, “for shorter straps.”

  Elon chose a large ax which could also be used as a hammer. It required both hands to swing it. Ephron picked up as many poles as he could carry and the three of them walked over to the tanning area, avoiding others who were busy with their own tasks.

  “I also,” continued Ephron, “love my mother, sisters, brothers and their children. I believe that we have very little time. The winter will make any kind of attacks difficult, perhaps impossible. However, I expect an attack in Spring, as soon as the weather permits. Six months or less is not enough time to build a solid stone wall. Six years is more like the time we would need. We also must have enough food supplies, sanitation, weapons and clothing. There is not enough time. I will never do anything, knowingly, that my father, Zohar, would disapprove of. But we must also do what is best, both to serve Adonai Elohim and to protect the family.”

  “Ephron!” called a female voice from by the fire in the kitchen area.

  “Coming!” said Ephron.


  Ephron dropped his poles and left Shelometh and Elon to finish the tanning stations with his brothers and sisters. With a hundred people working in it, the courtyard was still mostly empty space.

  Ephron helped the crew already working to tear down the smelter and forge and move the stones over to the dining area to enlarge the existing oven. Afterward he returned to his father and Yovov. Mahalath and Nebajoth were rearranging the kitchen area to prepare for the guests. Yovov and Zohar were silent as Ephron approached.

  “May I borrow Yovov for a few minutes, father?” asked Ephron.

  When Zohar nodded, Ephron turned to Yovov. “Would you like to see what we are up against?” Yovov nodded and the two men walked toward the tower in the southwest corner.

  “This tower required more than two years of everyone's labor,” Ephron. “We had to hunt, cook, make clothes, and do our regular routine while building the tower. It was not only difficult work, but it is very different from what we are used to doing. Moving stone that high in the wind is not possible, so there were many days, especially in the winter, we could not work on the tower at all. And the walls of the village were not strong enough to support the weight of the stones to the top of the tower, so we had to put stones next to and resting against the stones of the village wall to make the foundation strong enough.”

  “But a wall will not be as difficult,” countered Yovov.

  “True, but it will still be difficult. And it is a much larger project. I expect an attack by spring. There will not be a wall by spring.”

  Though a staircase beginning on the ground level wound around the inside of the tower, Ephron chose the straight outer staircase against the south wall. There was a large landing nearly halfway to the roof with two doors opening to different rooms on the second story. The stairs continued to a small landing with a single door leading to rooms on the third floor. The stairway then continued to the roof of the third-story of rooms, which was also the top of the wall of the village. Do to an uneven courtyard, there were almost as many stairs between the ground and the landing for the second floor as between the second floor landing and the roof. After walking across the wide roof, there was a door to the tower. The square tower rose to more than twice the height of the roof, nearly seven stories.

  “I have visited Yadiya,” said Yovov. “This staircase, these walls, the quality of the stones, the lack of joints, how perfectly the joists support the walls and the doors as well as overall workmanship of this tower – all of that is vastly superior workmanship to anything I have seen in the plains of Shinar. They use the kiln-dried bricks in the cities of the plains of Shinar. Your wood is twice as thick, yet each beam is squared, finished, and fits without any gap between the wood and the stone. The door closes with a solid, close fit into the jambs with no air leaks whatsoever, even in the top and bottom. The bronze hinges will last much longer than we will live, as will the bronze latch. And the etching is beautiful. The stones, where they meet, do not allow in any air, even though they are a cubit thick.”

  As they crossed the roof, entered the tower, and began climbing the staircase, Ephron explained. “The square center column inside the tower is a chimney. And the wooden window shutters have horizontal slits which can be closed. Those were designed to help keep the night watchman warm during the winds of winter. The lowest fire on the ground floor can be made quite large to heat all of the sleeping quarters on this end.”

  “The walls are perfectly straight,” sand Yovov. “The corners are square, the quality of the stone– granite, I believe? – is exquisite.”

  “Limestone. Much easier to work with.”

  The two men reached the landing at the top of the tower and Ephron opened all of the windows completely. Like the windows in the stairway, these had closable slits. The square tower had a solid stone roof and a dozen men could comfortably stand looking out the windows.

  “On the coldest days of winter, you can heat this room with an additional firebox which is connected to the main chimney. And these bronze latticework lamps can be lit and hung outside as signal fires. You need to use these poles to keep the fire away from the shutters.”

  “May I examine that, please?” asked Yovov.

  Ephron handed the bronze signal lamp to him.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Yovov. “The craftsmanship is exquisite. Though it looks delicate, it really is very solid. The fire is contained in this center box, Yet the light will be visible to the horizon. How many of these do you have?”

  “One for each window,” said Ephron. “They will burn for over half the night without tending the fire.”

  Yovov handed the signal lamp back to Ephron, who replaced it on the ceiling hook. They turned to look to the north at the village of Hattus.

  “Even wood benches,” observed Yovov.

  “This is really a village,” said Ephron. “There is no need to stand all shift at high alert.”

  Yovov opened and closed a shutter, inspecting the hinges and the fit.

  “When we make tools for stone cutting,” said Ephron, “we must make a different furnace. If we use the regular bronze on stone, the bronze tools wear out quickly. We have a very small supply of special bronze for cutting stone. It is very difficult to acquire and requires a much hotter furnace to smelt and forge it. Stone-cutting bronze can be dipped into regular liquid bronze and nothing happens to it. It does not melt or change color. We also have a large supply of iron, which can also cut stone, but not as well as the stone-cutting bronze. I think you will find the stone-cutting tools are very interesting.

  “When Zohar first arrived here, a son of Arphaxad and his family were living in those caves.” Ephron pointed to several small stone structures a short bowshot north of the walls of Hattus.”

  “So this land actually belongs to Shemites?” asked Yovov.

  “Before they intermarried,” said Ephron. “My sister-in-law Adah is a great-great-great granddaughter of Shem. Everyone of them either live with us in Hattus or have moved out of the area because they married some other Hittite. They actually named this place Hattus. We built the storage units around the cave openings where they used to live.”

  “Why are the cave storage units outside of the wall?” asked Yovov.

  “You can see that Hattus was never built to be a fortress,” said Ephron. “The outer walls, though made of thick limestone, were designed to keep out animals and thieves, not assaults by hundreds or even thousands of men. There are six walls, all different lengths, and they are only three stories tall. Hattus as it stands now cannot be easily defended. Without the added protection of the mountain, it could not be defended at all. Anah was correct. Hattus needs another wall if it is to be defended. And it should have another, larger wall outside of that one. The new middle wall would need rooms for your tribe. That means we would need more tools for cutting poles as well as stone. Besides, your tribe has never worked with stone. Some of my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews have never worked with stone! This tower is the last building we built with stone. And we started working on this tower when I was twelve years old.”

  “This tower is not very tall,” said Yovov.

  “It's actually more than six stories tall,” said Ephron. “But most of us think of it as seven stories tall.”

  “Can you see the cliffs where we were camped?” asked Yovov.

  “I do not think so,” said Ephron, as they moved to south side of the tower. “If you look down, you can see that the base of the tower is set just behind the wall of the village. There is usually only one guard up here, day or night. He is watching for animals or maybe a bandit. Until last night, we believed that we were too far away to be concerned with other people.”

  “There is no sign of our territory,” said Yovov. “But we have an impressive view of our tribe coming. Well ordered, dragging everything they own behind the animals in straight lines.”

  Yovov moved slightly left, moving his head back and forth. “I also see several
helmeted men on horseback, riding away from Hattus. They are certainly not from our tribe. The same helmets again.”

  When the first camels of Anah arrived at Hattus, they were quickly unloaded. Each travois was placed in a rack and the animals watered at spring-fed troughs. As others arrived, the earlier arrivals were led away to various feeding troughs to make room at the watering troughs. Anah’s tribe began a well-rehearsed setup of their tents. The animals were unsaddled and each travois emptied so they could rest in preparation for the difficult task of tomorrow’s hunt. After the tents were set up, spears and swords were inspected and sharpened if needed. Armor and shields were oiled and every necessary item was examined, inventoried, and set in place for the morning. The travois were left assembled for use in the morning.

  Though Anah arrived in the first group, he greeted every one of his children as they arrived. The men wore brightly-colored leather garments under a layer of armor. Each woman was dressed in thick, embroidered white cloth. The subdued embroidery used black thread in geometric patterns. When the last camel was unloaded, Anah inspected the preparations. One at a time, each clan chieftain reported that his clan was completely accounted for. Anah then rode through the entire tribe for one final inspection. At last Anah was satisfied that every person and every animal was both accounted for and settled into its proper position. It was mid-afternoon when he asked the clan chieftains to walk with him through the gates of Hattus.

  “Welcome, Anah,” said Ephron.

  Ephron wore the same style of simple leather hunting garments he had worn when he visited Anah the day before. The rest of Zohar’s family, unsure when Anah would actually come through the gate, was busy about the many tasks necessary for tomorrow’s hunt. Anah came to a complete stop before Ephron and looked around, puzzled.

  “Where is my brother?” asked Anah.

  “He is sitting by the tables,” said Ephron, motioning toward the southeast corner.

  “There’s a hunt tomorrow and Zohar is sitting?” demanded Anah. “My brother is more than one hundred years younger than I. The only Hittite who learned to build with stone is sitting? Where?”

  Ephron pointed and Anah walked quickly to his brother, nearly running while his sons watched, then followed slowly. Ephron followed with the sons of Anah. Anah knelt on one knee before Zohar and looked carefully into the eyes of his brother. Neither man spoke as Nebajoth and several other women slowly gathered around them. Anah waited until the clan chieftains, Yovov, and Ephron arrived before he spoke.

  “What has happened to you, my brother?”

  “I do not know,” said Zohar. “But every day I grow weaker. I will not be able to go with you on the hunt. Ephron has the hunt well-planned.”

  Anah had to lean forward to hear his brother. But Zohar said no more. Zohar’s entire tribe, except for Ephron and Nebajoth, were working efficiently.

  “How long has he been like this?” asked Anah.

  “The changes began just after the hunt last year,” said his wife. “They came slowly and there was little overall decline until the new moon before last, perhaps seven weeks ago. All of his hair as it now grows out is white and he grew very weak. The inability to walk more than a few bowshots or even stand for very long – that happened maybe two or three weeks ago. He seems to stabilize and then something else happens and he becomes weaker.”

  “This is horrible,” said Anah. “This could destroy us all.”

  “Ephron will take care of you,” said Zohar. He smiled and seemed to relax. Anah, instead of being comforted, grew more distraught.

  “Since you are all together at this time,” said Ephron, “this is as good a time as any to show you our plans for tomorrow.”

  Ephron motioned to a table covered with some clay molded to look like a ravine to the north in front of his father.

  “Your sons,” said Ephron, looking at Anah, “are driving the herd through this ravine, so the gazelles will not be able to double back at this point. Unlike previous years, we will come with you. Eight bowmen, four per side, will shoot down at the gazelles as they leave the ravine. We will only be able to put one arrow, at the most, into a passing animal. That is not enough to bring it down. Even with eight bowman and the ravine to slow them down, most of them will get past us untouched.”

  “But your shooting the animals first will make spearing the animals much easier,” said Yovov.

  “Exactly,” said Ephron. “You will have more people to field-dress and place the carcasses on pack animals. This cave has been emptied.” Ephron pointed to another table with clay models of the buildings around the caves.

  “Tables are set up to place the meat on. The only additional preparation of the meat tomorrow will be to skin them and place them on smoking racks. Your people will unload the animals. We will skin them and mount both the hides and the meat on the smoking racks. If we are going to work on preparing the walls this winter, we need as much meat as we can physically kill tomorrow. It will not be like past years where this was a nice additional blessing. We need this to survive.”

  “The herd is much larger than any time in the past, more than ten thousand animals,” said Yovov. “I doubt we will be able to spear more than about 3,000, even with your archers. We need more than that, more than 4,000. Gazelles are not very large.”

  “The caves are ready now,” added Ephron. “And we need to be in place before dawn. The gazelles will begin traveling by morning light. There is also food and water prepared for the pack animals in the cave. We should be able to get three or maybe even four trips from each pack animal tomorrow. My brother Taku and my sister Tawananna have prepared thousands of arrows for this. Do you have any questions?”

  “We cannot change out the archers,” observed Yovov, “because we do not enough people with those skills.”

  “We have a dozen trained archers and eight bows,” interrupted Ephron. “That is enough to allow them to spell each other somewhat.”

  “That will have to do,” said Anah.

  “And spearman can switch places with those dragging, field dressing, and working with the pack animals,” said Yovov.

  “The pack animals are divided into four groups,” said Ephron. “There is enough time to constantly rotate them. One group will be loading at the same time another group is unloading. At the same time a third group will be traveling to the hunting grounds while the fourth group will be traveling to the cave from the hunting grounds. Guiding the pack animals is much easier work, so every time one group returns to the hunting grounds, they will switch out with some spearmen.”

  “How far away are the hunting grounds,” came an unknown voice in the back. “How long will it take to get there and how long will the Gazelle run?”

  “The hunting grounds are very close this year; two to three dozen bowshots away,” said Ephron. “The narrow gorge has a bend forcing the gazelles to slow through the final opening, so they might run through there until noon. If they are faster, then many of them will get past us. We do not want to kill all of them, or even most of them because then there will not be any for next year.”

  “A kite!” said Yovov.

  “Not quite,” said Ephron. “There is an escape route. We dug these pits here and here for the blood and the entrails from the field dressing. The dirt piles are to cover each pit as it is filled.”

  “This is an excellent plan,” said Anah. “May I suggest one change?”

  Ephron nodded.

  “We already have divided our tribe into eighteen clans,” continued Anah. “Instead of four large units, we should keep to the smaller clans. When one clan unpacks their animals, they return to the hunt, hand their animals over to a clan which is field dressing, dragging, or spearing, and take their place.”

  “Agreed,” said Ephron. “Besides camels and horses, we have donkeys and about a dozen cattle with travois. With this much blood, we will attract predators. Any other comments?”

  Everyone looked around to see if anyone else had something to say. A
fter a minute or two of this, Nebajoth spoke.

  “When you are ready, your tents are prepared and your arms in place, bring everyone inside the gates, offer prayers, and you are welcome to share our pot. There is enough bread for one small loaf per person, either wheat or barley. You may fill your cup from either of the springs as often as you like. Our rule is no one may fill his bowl a second time until everyone has filled his bowl once. There are also dried fruits and vegetables on the table. We apologize, but we do not have enough room at the tables for you. You are welcome to bring your blankets or whatever furniture you have inside the gates and enjoy the little bit of hospitality we can offer to such a great company.”

  “Your hospitality is greatly appreciated,” said Anah. “Though hunting has been very good, we have been moving every few days and cooking has been difficult. Also, we have very little besides meat. It has been months since we been able to bake bread.”

  “And even longer since we have had cheese,” said Mahalath.

  Ephron looked around, spotted his sister Tawananna and waved her over to the group.

  “Sis,” said Ephron, “can you let everyone know that they should get ready for the evening sacrifice? Everything should be ready so we can arrive at the ravine in the morning while the stars are still bright.”

  “Do we move the racks before we eat?” asked Tawananna. “We need the room inside the walls if everyone is going to eat here tonight.”

  Ephron looked around before responding. “If each one of us standing here moves two racks, we should be done before anyone else is ready for the sacrifice. Any objections?”

  There were no objections. As Tawananna walked off, Ephron spoke to Anah.

  “I am not going to tell you what to do, but you really should stay with your brother.”

  Anah rose to object, then nodded and returned to Zohar.

  Ephron pointed at the newly-made racks and said, “Lean these against the outbuildings. Those working in the caves will have time to set them up in the morning.”

  The racks were too heavy for just two men, so each rack was carried by four men. That required four trips apiece.

  “How serious is your illness?” asked Anah.

  “I could live like this for years,” said Zohar. “Or I could be gathered to my people tonight.”

  “Gathered to your people,” Anah snorted. “Heth lives. Canaan lives. Ham and Noah live. Who are you going to be gathered to? Lamech? I don’t think Lamech is with Adonai.”

  “Enoch,” said Zohar. “And yes, with great sorrow I greatly fear that our father Lamech is with the Shining One.”

  Anah stopped laughing. “I would like to meet Enoch.”

  “And Methuselah, and Seth, and Adam.”

  “If you are the first to die will we be gathered to you?”

  “You will either be gathered to Adonai or you will be gathered to the Shining One. Those are the only choices.”

  “You understand our predicament?” asked Anah.

  “That the fall of the tower of Gilgamesh and the fighting in cities of the plains means many thousands of men want our lands?”

  “And how is a mere thousand, including women and children, going to withstand such an onslaught?”

  “Well, certainly not by becoming like them. You think that by making this a city and becoming like them, we can defeat them. Perhaps. But by doing so, you will give up everything we are. Their armies will not defeat us. But we will surrender to their desires.”

  “So you have a better idea? Where do we go? What is your idea? Just take their daughters for our sons and give our daughters to their sons? I see the same problems you see. What I do not see are solutions.”

  “Heth sent a message a few months ago. The Black Basin is filling with water. The entire basin area is below the level of the oceans and the water runoff from the rivers has no place to go. The rising water will not be swift, but Heth is looking to move someplace. The sons of Japheth are filling the lands north of the Black Basin. In a few years, perhaps decades, the Black Basin will be completely under water. Heth is investigating the possibility of moving here also.”

  “That’s another problem. Not a solution.”

  “We worship Adonai, not the works of our hands. We know how to hunt. We will make walls of men.”

  “What? We pile up dead bodies and make a wall of dead bodies?”

  “No, warriors. Men who can fight.”

  “We are outnumbered at least one hundred to one. More likely thousands to one.”

  “What is this about those men who could not talk to your sons?” asked Zohar, changing the subject.

  “After the hunt,” said Anah, “we are sending off a party to find a caravan and ask about that. Very odd. Maybe Heth can tell us about that.”

  “How about asking the caravan to come here? I would like to ask them myself.”

  “For the same reason you have never had a caravan come here before. Getting camels to cross the Marashantiya is both difficult and unpredictable. Too risky.”

  “And if we built a causeway at the fords?”

  “By we, you mean me and our sons. Can you even ride an animal down to see the fords? Besides, you people do not even use money. What do you have to offer a caravan?”

  “Protection from the elements, food for men and animals, and water. We have thousands of storage bins of grain: spelt, wheat, barley, rye, lentils, and beans. We also have a few jars of a weed we call oat. There are hundreds of jars of dried fruits, roots, and nuts.”

  “No wine?”

  “We did not plant these. All of these grow wild on our land, and we have gathered them for years. Though there are a few grapes, they were dried and made into raisins. But mostly spelt.

  “There is more out there that could be harvested. Your sons and daughters must learn what is good and how to gather it so there is more next year.”

  “Heth is coming. This time he is not staying. But if his home will be flooded they will need a place to live. How many of his children live with him?”

  “I do not know what to do. I am so tired. I only want to sleep.”

  “All of this is yours. Noah gave it to Canaan, Canaan did not want it, Heth did not want it, so you took it simply because they thought this land to be worthless. Now that you showed everyone that this is valuable land, everyone wants to take it from you.”

  “No, it belongs to Ephron. I will gathered to my people within a year.”

  “Ephron is a child. He isn’t even married.”

  “Your granddaughter, Shelmeth,” murmured Zohar. “I want Shelmeth for Ephron. Merge our tribes.”

  “Her name is Shelometh,” said Anah.

  “Peace child,” said Zohar.

  “Peace child,” repeated Anah. “A peace child? You mean peace children. It must go both ways. And I am not giving my land to anyone.”

  “Your land?” whispered Zohar, smiling slightly. “It is only your land when you live in it. You’re on my land. My daughter Tawananna, peace child to Elon.”

  “Elon? Another child. You want children to rule over us? Besides, you said that you could continue like this for years. Why are you so certain that you will be gathered to your people in a year or less now?”

  “Ask Nebajoth. She knows. Yes I might last like this for years. That is in Adonai's hand. But it is not very likely.”

  “We can certainly agree that if we do not work together,” said Anah, changing the subject yet again, “then we shall be unable to defend ourselves. So why did you pick Ephron?”

  “He’s not married,” said Zohar. “So he can marry a peace child. He thinks like I do, loves Adonai. But several of my sons do that. And he can build your wall. He is my only son who knows every aspect of how to build with stone.”

  “I thought you didn’t want a wall built.”

  “I do not. That is why Ephron is a better choice for building these walls. Every man, woman and child has worked and given everything we had to make this village work, so that we would have enough t
o eat, clothes to wear, a place to sleep and a few luxuries such as music. Now caravans will come and offer us great luxuries the likes of which we have never dreamed of.

  “Now we will have to be concerned with who owns property. No one has ever been paid for their labor because no one ever had money and everyone worked as hard as they could and shared what they produced with everyone. Now we will have jewelry, multiple garments, choices in what we can eat, medical services, works of art, and things even I can not imagine. We are unleashing envy, greed, and every kind of covetousness. Brother will fight against brother. People will fight over wives, opportunities, the best place to live, the best kind of food, and things so trivial no one, except those fighting, will even be able to understand why. Instead of respect for family, we will need someone to force others to work and do what is right. And how will we be any better than the Assyrians?”

  Zohar had slowly stood while speaking these words, getting louder as he became more passionate. At the same time his face flushed and he stopped talking only to start coughing loudly. Nebajoth wrapped her husband in a robe while offering him a drink of milk, and then water. But neither were able to stop the coughing. As Zohar sat down, weak and flushed, his coughing began to subside.

  “And medical care,” said his brother Anah. “We will be able to afford physicians.”

  Zohar finally stopped coughing, weak and unable to speak. He simply pushed out with his hands, a feeble gesture.

  “I am not going to force anyone to marry. But I think that you have a good idea, my brother. I will talk to those involved. That is likely to involve more of our children than Tawananna, Shelometh, Ephron, and Elon. I am afraid that you are correct. It will take not only peace children but everything we can do to prevent being killed or enslaved.”

  Ephron offered the evening sacrifices and prayers. Nebajoth oversaw the food distribution to make certain everyone had enough. Yovov volunteered to close the gates after a final inspection. Ephron then ate as he walked around the village to make certain, one last time, that everything was ready for the morning hunt. After reassuring Zohar, Ephron went to sleep in the guard tower while the two tribes made their final preparations for a brief rest.