"Triumph! triumph! as far as I have gone," she replied.
"And you have no fears, no doubts, no darkness around you?" he continued, anxious that Zadok should know how well her faith sustained her to the last.
"Oh no!" she slowly and distinctly answered. "The valley is all light now. I see heaven opening beyond it. I see the redeemed with their golden harps, and almost I hear their songs of joy. There is no darkness there, for the Lamb is the light thereof."
More she tried to say, but no sound came from her parted lips, and her voice was never heard again on earth. So gently, so imperceptibly her breathing died away, that none knew at what moment her spirit fled to God. Zadok felt her hands unclasp their hold of his, and they became cold and still. With trembling steps Deborah approached, and drew aside the drapery that had hitherto excluded the light of the rising sun; and as the first beams darted brightly over the summit of Mount Olivet, they fell on the lifeless form of Salome, and showed the hue of death on her cold features.
The agony of grief, which had been so long repressed in the bosom of Zadok, now burst forth with somewhat of the fervent feeling for which his race was distinguished; and he mourned over the dead with bitter tears. Theophilus led him and his daughter from the chamber, to that in which Javan sat gloomy and sad; and the meeting of Naomi and her brother was deeply painful to both.
The circumstances in which the city was placed were such as to prevent the greatest part of the ceremonies which usually followed the death of a Jewish matron from being performed. Deborah exerted herself, with the assistance of the other domestics, to supply every deficiency, and Javan was zealously anxious that nothing of the customary forms should be omitted that could possibly be attended to. He summoned the rabbi Joazer, and concerted with him as to the funeral of his mother, which by Zadok's desire was to take place that very day. He would not suffer the remains of his beloved wife to be carried out into the polluted streets, and he resolved that she should be laid beneath the shady trees in the garden attached to his house. The custom of the Jews forbad a priest from touching a corpse, or even remaining in the house which contained one. Zadok therefore went forth and wandered up and down the desolate street while the hasty preparations were made. Then, when the body was carried down to the simple grave that had been dug by the servants of the household, he repaired to the terrace with Naomi; and though he was not legally permitted to be present at a funeral, yet he stood there to see the mortal body of his beloved wife laid in the dust; and he was enabled to lift his eyes to Heaven with gratitude that she had been taken away from the evil to come, and with the hope that ere long he should rejoin her beyond the clear blue sky that now glowed brightly over his head.
Tombs of the Kings