In a dream, in visions of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon their bed
God giveth instruction unto men.—Job xxxiii. 15.
A part of the dream is on the point of being fulfilled, in your receiving the sacerdotal unction, and we will hope that the rest portends only good. What Golgotha should mean I do not understand.”
Helon purified himself in the evening, by the prescribed ablutions, from the uncleanness which he had contracted by the contact of the grave. Still he was not permitted to enter the temple for seven days to come; for so long the uncleanness lasted which was produced by touching a sepulchre. But the prohibition applied only to the temple.
The following day was a sabbath. Elisama took the presents which he had destined for the high-priest, and Helon and he went together to the [castle of Baris]. It was a stately edifice erected by Hyrcanus. It stood at the north-east corner of the temple, on a steep rock fifty cubits high, and formed a quadrangle, in the midst of which a splendid palace stood. Besides a court, it was surrounded with a wall, on the four corners of which were towers, that on the south-east side being the highest, for the purpose of commanding the temple from it.
The high-priest received the stranger, sitting in the inner court, by the fountain, and bade them welcome. Elisama had been known to him before, and Hyrcanus rejoiced to see him after an interval of many years. With lofty panegyrics of his government, and the heroic deeds of himself and his progenitors, Elisama laid his Egyptian presents at his feet, consisting of valuable or curious productions of nature and art from that country, and then made application for Helon’s admission into the priesthood. The high-priest lent a favourable ear to the request, but observed, that as the triumphal entry of his sons was to take place on the approaching new moon, he could not before that time admit Helon to the temple service, and he recommended it to Elisama to employ the interval in examining the genealogical table of the young candidate. Having promised them all necessary aid in carrying their purpose into effect, he dismissed them.
The first step had now been taken. Helon left the castle, full of exultation, and congratulating Israel that such a hero as Hyrcanus sat upon its throne. On their return home Elisama announced to Iddo his intention of making a journey with Helon to Joppa, where the keeper of the genealogical register of their family dwelt. “Since you are now to be an inhabitant of the Promised Land,” said he to Helon, “it is right that you should become acquainted with it and with your kinsmen who dwell in it. We shall return in time to witness the triumphal entry.” Helon requested that they might take Anathoth in their way, a place which he felt an indescribable longing to see, as being the native town of his prophet Jeremiah. Elisama agreed, and as soon as the sabbath was ended preparations for the journey were hastily made.