Stories of the Prophets (Before the Exile) | Page 5

an answer that would make the crowd laugh and put them in
good humor.
The country yokel again made as if to speak but changed his mind and
backed away, facing the auctioneer.
He had hardly backed three paces when he bumped into some one. He
was pushed violently forward, and, before he could recover, winced
under a stinging crack from a whip.

He turned quickly and faced two brutish looking men, swearing at his
awkwardness and cursing his impudence for being in the way.
The "farmer" could have given a good account of himself in a square
fight with these men, but he knew better than to start a fight with them.
They were the foreguards to a splendid pleasure outfit--the outfit of a
very rich Samarian merchant. A fight meant arrest and punishment at
the hands of Samarian judges, whether he was in the right or not. The
rich of Samaria had the judges under their thumbs. A stranger or a poor
man, in fact, anyone who had no influence in Samaria, stood little
chance of getting justice.
So the farmer cleared the way. Standing aside, he watched the chariot
drawn by four Egyptian steeds, surrounded by guards, slaves and
hangers-on, make its way through the crowded market place, paying no
attention to the rights and privileges of any one. The wealthy merchant
in the chariot held his head up proudly. He greeted only the prosperous
looking; upon the curious crowds and small merchants, he looked down
with contempt.
The merchant whose attendants had so grossly insulted the "farmer"
drew up before a great palace. Rich carpets were spread from the
chariot to the steps of the mansion. The rich man's followers bowed
low as he passed up the steps and through the door held open by
attendants. Some followed him into the house; others mingled with the
people in the market place; the slaves went to their quarters by a rear
entrance.
The stranger in the woolen robe was not as green as he looked. He had
witnessed the growth and prosperity of Samaria during the last twenty
years of Jeroboam II's reign until it became the busiest trade center in
the Empire.
Leaning against the stone column, on which was graven the record of
Jeroboam's victory over Damascus, and still smarting from the lash of
the servant's whip, he recalled the story of Samaria's great strides to its
present prosperous condition.

The subjugation of Judah on the south, which this farmer had good
cause to remember; the conquest of Syria on the north and Jeroboam's
peace compact with Assyria further east, assured a long period of
peaceful development within the empire.
New highways were built, so that the farther ends of the country were
brought close together for business purposes. Farmers could bring their
crops to the cities easily. Many remained in the cities and engaged in
business pursuits. Caravans traveled great distances, bringing precious
luxuries from one part of the empire to another, and even from foreign
countries.
Many thus became very wealthy. They built themselves palaces for
winter residences in the cities and palaces for summer residences in the
country. To get rich seemed to be the aim of everybody; and, with
riches, came ostentation and luxuriant living.
The city of Samaria, especially, was the center for Israel's most wealthy
men. Their homes were wonders of stone and ivory. The furnishings
rivaled in beauty the splendor of the outside. The rooms were high and
spacious. The beds and tables and chairs were of the finest wood of
Lebanon, carved by the craftsmen of Tyre, and inlaid with ivory. The
coverings were of the richest purple and gold from Egypt and the Indies.
Wine cellars were a part of every house and feasts were spread
whenever the occasion offered itself. Fatted lambs and calves were
slaughtered daily to supply the tables, and new instruments were
invented to furnish music at the feasts.
This, however, was only one side of the picture of Samaria in its days
of greatest prosperity. The "farmer" knew that there was another, much
less beautiful. While the rich were growing richer, the poor were
growing poorer.
The rich, thinking only of themselves, their wealth, their power, their
good times, cheated and oppressed the poor unmercifully. They gave
false weights and short measure and sold at high prices, poor stuff at
that. They would drive a poor man into debt and have him sold into
slavery; so that human beings became a drug on the market, as it were.

In fact, at the very auction which the "farmer" watched that day, one
poor man was sold for the price of a pair of shoes. The poor had even
no chance to get justice in the courts. The greed for money placed
corrupt officials in office