[silence]. Rabbi, say, what shall they do?

JOHN

Am I the keeper of these people? The shepherd may drive his flock through thorns or flowers. I pine for the wilderness, for my rocky fastnesses.

JOSAPHAT

[Dismayed.] Rabbi!

JOHN

I have awakened the slumbering conscience, scourged and roused the idle, shown the erring the right road. One great burst of indignation against Herod now flames towards heaven. So now they may let me go my way, or send their spies after me. But no priest has yet dared to stand in my path. It is well. My work in Jerusalem is at an end.

MATTHIAS

Not so, Rabbi. Thy work only beginneth. We have to face the Prince's entry. The people want a leader.

JOHN

Whither will they be led?

MATTHIAS

That we know not, Rabbi.

JOHN

And do I know? Am I one to subject my will to the fetters of a plan, or to spin a web of calculations for others? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. That is my destiny. Come! [He stands up.]

THE PEOPLE

Hail to thee, John! Hail! [As he is going, Amasai and Jorab step in his way.]

SCENE VIII

The same. Amasai, Jorab.

AMASAI

Pardon us, great Prophet, that we have not yet been present at thy baptisms.

JOHN

Who are ye?

JOSAPHAT

[Whispering.] Be on your guard, Rabbi. They wear the wide hem of the Pharisees. Their brethren are high in the Council.

AMASAI

We are diligent scribes, simple men, to whom the study of the law hath brought more honour than we deserve.

JOHN

May be. But what do ye want with me?

AMASAI

Many reports of miracles worked by thee have come to our ears. Some say thou art Elias; and others, even greater than he. We are willing to believe this, even if thou performest not his miracles. Naturally thou mayest have reasons in thy heart for keeping thy power of miracle-working a secret from us.

PASUR

Hath he worked miracles?

ELIAKIM

Not for me.

PASUR

Ah!

AMASAI

We have heard, too, much of thy godliness; that thou fastest and prayest as one to whom meat and drink and earthly intercourse are of no account. We fast and pray also, and our desire for doing good cannot be satisfied. But the law is harder and more zealous than we. Therefore we beg thee to be so gracious as to bestow on us the benefit of thy teaching, Rabbi, and to tell us how we can keep the law.

JOHN

So? Ye lay traps for me under the cloak of your glib words. Ye generation of vipers! Who hath told you that ye shall escape the wrath to come? Woe unto you, when He cometh Who is stronger than I! He hath His sickle already in His hand. He will gather the grain into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with everlasting fire.

PASUR

Of whom doth he speak?

HACHMONI

Hush! he speaks of the Messiah.

ELIAKIM

What Messiah?

JORAB

Come, Amasai. I am afraid of this man.

AMASAI

[Shielding himself with his hand.] We approached thee as petitioners, and thou hast abused us. We will let that pass, presuming that thou hast a right thereto. The one of whom thou speakest as coming after thee has given thee the right. Is it not so? [Silence.] Behold, ye people of Israel, your prophet is silent. If it be not the Messiah, the Messiah of Whom he preaches in the wilderness, and even in the market-place, who hath given him the right to chide us? Where else hath he obtained his authority? Ye know what we are, God-fearing, upright men, that strive to obey the law in everything.

ONE OF THE PEOPLE

Who is this?

ELIAKIM

Amasai, the wise and learned scribe.

PEOPLE

[Murmuring.] Listen, it is Amasai.

ANOTHER

Rabbi, wilt thou not bless us?

AMASAI

Yea, we, in short, who are a piece of the law ourselves. And we have never done this man any harm. If he is an enemy to us, it must be because he is an enemy to the law.

JOHN

Thou liest.

AMASAI

Good. If I lie, so teach me, great prophet, how thou keepest the law.

JOSAPHAT

[In a low voice.] Yes, Rabbi, explain! The people expect it.

JOHN

I have nothing to do with the law, of which ye and your like set up to be guardians and students. [Sensation among the people.]

JOSAPHAT

[Sotto voce.] Rabbi, think what thou art saying. Injure not thyself.

JOHN

Nay, it is not your law, but ye yourselves that I hate. For your hand lieth heavily on this people, and your well-being is its affliction.

AMASAI

That thou hast yet to prove, great prophet.

JOHN

Who are ye, ye men of worldly wisdom, that ye should look on the law as your special inheritance and possession? Here is an enslaved people crawling patiently on its belly beneath a scourge, oppressed by a heavy burden, and ye desire to tell it how it shall crawl.

AMASAI

Yea, because it must crawl somehow, great prophet.

JOHN

Ye think so. I say that it shall rise out of the dust.

AMASAI

Thus have rebels ever spoken, and the end hath always been the cross and the gallows. Thou, whom men call the great prophet, listen to me! When the Lord redeemed His people the first time, how did He do it? Through the law. And when He redeemed them a second time, knowest thou how He did it? Through the law. So if we guard and watch this law, and let it expand by itself, swelling like an ear of corn, a thousand times into a thousandfold blessings, what is our object? Redemption, the hope which lives in all of us. Only we do not noise it abroad in the gutter and on the housetops.

PEOPLE

[Murmuring.] There he is right. Aye, he is right!