Yea, the work of our hands may thy goodness prosper!
“Be that the blessing of thy father upon thee,” said Elisama when they had finished. “Does not this psalm seem to have been composed to suit our circumstances; beginning with lamentation on account of death, and confession of sin; yet even in the midst of these, calling on Jehovah, on him who has been our refuge from generation to generation? Yes, Helon, such has he been to the whole series of our ancestors even to him who, with the prophet Jeremiah, was compelled to flee into Egypt; and on this we found our prayer, Return to us O Jehovah! The Lord has heard thee, happy youth! Thou shalt behold the works of Jehovah! And from the sepulchre of thy father, from beneath these primeval cedars, his spirit blesses thee and says, The favour of the Lord thy God be upon thee. May he prosper all the work of thy hands, yea the work of thy hands may his goodness prosper. And now let us go. We will return home by Zion and by the spring of Siloah.”
At the south-east corner of Jerusalem, near [the termination of the Kedron], lies the valley of Hinnom, where once sacrifices were offered to Moloch on Tophet. They bent their course around the Water-gate and went through this valley which lies on the southern side, along the aqueduct of Siloah, which had been erected by Solomon. They came first to the lower pool, then to the remains of a noble garden, and at last, opposite to the south-west side of the city to the upper pool, near which was the highly-prized fountain of Siloah, which Manasseh, on his return, had connected with the city by means of a well. Isaiah describes the waters of Siloah as “flowing softly.”[[3]]
This is the holy spot where the wisest king of Israel was anointed. David, then grey with years, said, “Set Solomon my son on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon (so this fountain was then called) and let Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, anoint him there king over Israel. So Zadok and Nathan, and Benaiah and the Kerethites and the Pelethites went down thither, and Zadok took a horn of oil out of the sanctuary and anointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpet, and all the people came up after him piping and rejoicing, so that the earth was rent with their sound.”[[4]]
“It was not without reason,” said Elisama, “that I brought thee hither to-day. As the king is the anointed of a people, so is the priest of a family. For thy own sake I led thee to the valley of Jehoshaphat; it shall serve as an omen to myself that I have brought thee hither.”
They were both silent. Passing by the Fuller’s Field,[[5]] as it was called from ancient times, and bending round the western side of the city, by the ruins of the aqueduct of Hezekiah, they entered the valley of Siloah. Between the gate of the Fountain and the gate of the Valley they saw the tower of Zion, formerly called the tower of the Jebusites,[[6]] and now the city of David, rising in the midst of the Higher City which had been built around it. The Higher and Lower City were separated by a valley, which was called the Tyropœon (valley of the cheese-makers.) They entered by the gate of the Valley and thus reached again the house of Iddo, in the Higher City, and in the Broad-street.
How did Iddo sympathize in the joy with which Elisama announced to him the determination of Helon! He was standing in the outer court, and had just taken leave of some acquaintance, when they entered. Leading them with exclamations of joy to the inner court, he called his wife from the apartment of the women, made the slaves place cushions around the fountain, and repeatedly exclaimed, “What a happiness for a family! The priest is indeed an angel of Jehovah of Hosts.”
The day was spent in domestic festivity, but Helon could not be present at the evening sacrifice, because he had made himself unclean by contact with a grave.[[7]] It seemed somewhat strange to him, that he should have been defiled by a visit to his father’s tomb, and be unfit to appear in the temple of Jehovah, because he had shed there tears not of earthly sorrow but of heavenly hope. But he consoled himself with the thought that the priest was more secure even in this respect.
In the afternoon, as he could not go up to the temple, he strayed, accompanied by his host, through the Higher City, the Lower City, and came at last into the New City. The artisans were at their labours, in shops open to the street, and presented a picture of animated activity. They passed the ruins of the palaces of David, in the Upper City, and Solomon in the Lower City, and saw the tower of Baris, where Helon was to appear on the following day, before the high-priest, and at length turned in the New City around the hill Bezetha, by the Gate of the Corner which lay in the north-east side of the city. [The sepulchres of the kings],[[8]] a splendid work, hewn out of the rock, was near. Helon and Iddo proceeded, and winding round the west side of the city came into the vale of Gihon. “Yonder,” said Iddo, “is Golgotha,” as they came to an open space.
A dim remembrance of the connection of this place with some past event of his life came into Helon’s mind, and he at length recollected his dream. “I have had,” said he to his host, “an extraordinary dream, which I have been unable to shake off and which ended with [Golgotha].” When he had related it to him, Iddo replied, “Remember the words of Elihu,