you have done to his Chosen people and to lead us back to our own land!'
"Roars came from the Hebrews, roars and prayers and chants and bowing and bowing to the Lord God of Hosts, and the Babylonians looked on in amazement, some of them even laughing, and then Enoch made his prophecy again:
" 'Yahweh sends a saviour in the person of Cyrus to save this city . . . aye, even you Babylon, you yourself will be delivered out of the hands of mad Nabonidus into the hands of a liberator.'
"There was a beat of silence. Only a beat. And then the roar rose from all-Hebrew, Babylonian, Greek, Persian. The whole crowd cried up for joy. 'Yes, yes, the anointed one, Cyrus the Persian, may he liberate us from a mad king who. has left the city.'
"Hordes began to bow to Marduk, bow at his feet and stretch out their arms and then back away . . .
" 'All right, impostor, savor your moment!' cried Enoch. 'It is the will of Yahweh that your city be surrendered without bloodshed. But you are no true God. You are an impostor and in the temples there are nought but statues. Statues, I tell you. You and your priests will see us leave in triumph and you will thank us that we have saved Babylon for you!'
"I was truly speechless, no joke. I couldn't figure this out! But Marduk only nodded his head and took the insults of the prophet, and then he turned and threw up his arms. 'I'm leaving you now, Azriel, but take care and do nothing until you have my advice! Be on guard against those you love, Azriel. I feel dread, not for Babylon, Babylon shall conquer, but for you. Now comes my moment of pride.'
"He then began to blaze with gold light, and I could see by his maddened eyes that it was coming from him, and as the Babylonians and the Jews saw it, he had the strength from them to grow brighter and then he said in a huge voice, more huge than a man's, and rattling the lattices and echoing off the buildings:
" 'Get away from me-Enoch and all your tribe. I forgive you your rash words. Your God is faceless and merciless. But I call down the wind now to scatter you all!'
"And the wind came. The wind came with huge ferocity over the rooftops, lifted off the desert and filled with sand. The gold figure of Marduk suddenly grew immense before me, but I knew now this was illusion, for it was paling, and as I stood looking up at him, he exploded into a shower of gold, and the people went completely wild.
"Everyone ran. Panic drove them. What they had seen drove them. What they had heard and, if nothing else, the wind salted with sand drove them.
"Only I stood there, my brothers now rushing to my side, and the prophet, Enoch, laughing, just laughing and throwing out his arms! Then he bore down on me, shoving my father to one side with his staff. He gave me the evil eye! He looked at me and he said, 'You will pay for eating the food of the false gods. You will pay! You will pay.' And he spat at me, and reached down for the sand that was gathered and threw it at me. My brothers begged him to stop, but he laughed, and he said, 'You will pay.'
"I got furious, truly furious. My happy nature left me. I felt the first anger that would soon become common to me after my death. I leant forward and I said,
" 'Call on Yahweh to stop this sandstorm, you fool!' and then my brothers literally dragged me away.
"A host of devoted elders rushed out to shelter Enoch and they picked him up and carried him away like a madman thrashing and screaming and gradually, gradually ... as we ran to the shelter of our own house, the wind died away."
Part I Chapter 5
5
I was almost sick by the time we reached the house. My brothers were carrying me. And outside the gate, what should we see? "First were two of the other prophets, the more quiet ones who merely echoed the old words of Jeremiah sent from Egypt, and with them an old woman whom everyone feared and despised. Her name was Asenath, and she was one of our tribe but she was a necromancer, everybody knew, and such things were forbidden,