We now continue on our way, and after an hour come into a clean, shady grove belonging to a rich merchant of Sychar. All sorts of adornments are arranged in this grove: little gardens, streams, ponds with various kinds of fish and birds; and at the end of the very extensive grove stands a large old mansion with strong protective walls. Esau had built this mansion and lived there while Jacob was abroad. Naturally, it had suffered much in the storms of time, but this merchant had spent large sums to make it fully habitable again. He often lived in this mansion with all his household, and was staying there on this occasion too. He was indeed a charitable man and had many other estates, but he set great store by this property and disliked too many people entering his large grove, since he spent much on cultivating it.
When he now saw from his mansion that a great crowd was moving through the grove toward the mansion walls, he quickly sent his many attendants and servants to remove us from the grove and also had them ask what we wanted there.
But I said to the servants, ‘Go to your lord and tell him: his Lord and yours sends word that He, with everyone who is with Him, will stop at his house and take the midday meal!’
The servants and attendants immediately turn back and report this to their lord. But he asks them whether they do not know who I am, who demands this of him. The servants and attendants answer, saying, ‘We have already told you how he spoke to us: he is your lord and ours. Why ask us again? Seven royally adorned daughters accompany him most closely, and behind them a vast multitude beyond counting accompanies him! Perhaps he is a prince from Rome, and therefore it would be most advisable to hurry out to meet him and receive him at the great gate in the wall with every honor.’
When the merchant hears this, he says, ‘Then bring my most costly festive clothes at once, and let the whole house adorn itself as festively as possible! For such a prince must be received with the greatest splendor!’
Immediately everyone runs hither and thither throughout the mansion. The male and female cooks run into the pantries and at once bring masses of all kinds of food into the kitchens, and the gardeners run into the large gardens to gather all sorts of delicious fruit.
After a while the lord of the mansion comes, surrounded by a hundred of his foremost servants in the most splendid attire. On reaching Me, he bows three times almost to the ground, welcomes Me and all who accompany Me, and gives thanks for the highest grace shown to him, for he really thinks I am a prince from Rome.
But I look at him and ask, ‘Friend, what do you consider the highest position a human being can hold on earth?’
The rich merchant says, ‘Lord, forgive me, your most obedient slave! I was so stupid as not to understand your most exalted and wise question. Therefore descend from the immeasurable height of your wisdom and most graciously put the question in such a way that it becomes comprehensible to my boundless stupidity!’ He had, however, understood the question very well, but at that time it was a silly custom of politeness not to understand even the easiest question immediately when asked something by a person of high rank, merely to exalt that person’s wisdom thereby.
But I say to him, ‘Friend, you understood Me very well, and are acting as if you had not understood Me solely because of the old politeness that has now gone completely out of circulation. So leave this old silliness aside and answer My question!’
The merchant says, ‘Yes, if I may venture to answer at once, exalted lord, then with your high permission I believe I have understood the lofty question well, and my answer would accordingly be this: I quite naturally regard and consider the emperor the highest, and his office the very highest that a human being holds on this earth!’
I say, ‘But friend, why do you contradict yourself so greatly in your heart against your own motto, which says: “Truth is the highest and holiest thing on this earth, and an official who faithfully discharges the office of truth and justice holds the highest and most exalted office on earth”? Look, that is your motto. How can you, contrary to your inner conviction, declare the office of an emperor the highest, when as supreme commander he only discharges the office of brute force, which certainly does not always rest upon truth and justice?’
Here the rich merchant’s eyes widen, and after a while he says, ‘Lord, exalted one! Who revealed my motto to you? I have never spoken it fully aloud, though I have thought it a thousand and a thousand times again! For we know only too well that one does not always fare best with the naked truth, and for all sorts of political reasons one must keep it nicely at home if one wishes to go about among people with a whole skin!
‘But as I now perceive, you, exalted prince’s son, seem yourself a great friend of truth and justice, so it should be safe to approach you with dear truth. For very great lords never wish to hear the truth; therefore they honor flattery, which alone they desire, and all human right fares badly with them! Whatever they want, they fetch for themselves with force soon enough. Whether the poor complain of injustice now as once in ancient days, it is all one to the great lords standing in high honor. Therefore one must be very politic and speak to them finely, or there will be dungeons and galleys that increase people’s torment and pain.’
I say, ‘You have spoken well and truly; in this I entirely share your view. But now tell Me whom you actually take Me to be.’
The merchant says, ‘Lord, that is a very delicate question. If I say too much, I shall plainly be laughed at; but if I say too little, I shall land in the hole! Therefore it will be better to remain discreetly owing an answer than afterwards to while away the time for it in a dungeon with torment and pain!’
I say, ‘But if I assure you that you need fear neither the one nor the other, then surely you can answer Me! So say outright whom you take Me to be.’
The merchant says, ‘A prince from Rome, if I must speak!’
Jonael says behind Me, ‘That may well be far too little! You will have to guess somewhat higher; a prince will not do!’
The merchant is frightened and says, ‘Could it even be the emperor himself?’
Jonael says, ‘Still far too little; so guess higher!’
The merchant says, ‘I had better leave that alone, for there is nothing higher than an emperor of Rome!’
Jonael says, ‘And yet there is still something far higher! Think, and just say it plainly! For I can see into your heart, which assigns the emperor of Rome the lowest place with you. Why, then, do you speak differently from what you think and feel in your heart? So speak the truth!’