14 ¶ And because that which they had said was just, therefore the rulers of the land could not gainsay them. And they communed together in the council chamber concerning it.
15 And some, knowing not the spirit of the people, did say, Let us now do nothing rash lest, if we call up all the young men, they raise an outcry throughout the land.
16 But there were others that said, It is sufficient that we have need of men for to send against the enemy. Let us therefore see about it.
17 ¶ And they overruled those that were against them, and did make them a law whereby all the young men were called out for to fight.
18 ¶ But they absolved them that were in the workshops making the munitions of war, and acquitted them also that were plagued with a conscience.
19 And because the men of Ire said, We will not have it, therefore the rulers dared not to say them nay, for the men of Ire were rulers in the land of En.
20 And they appointed them tribunals, a mixed lot of men, so that those that were called out might show them a reason against it.
21 And because the net that was spread in the sight of the young men was wide in the mesh, therefore was the haul thereof fraught with disappointment. And the young men did work themselves free in ways that were various.
22 And some hied them unto the workshops to become makers of munitions of war, saying, the one unto the other, By this means, assuredly, shall we save our skins. And for a long time it was so.
23 And others did cry their woes before the tribunals. And the tales that they did tell were pitiful indeed, and they did move the tribunals unto compassion so that they absolved them.