The Son in Jerusalem

XIII
The Son in Jerusalem

1. THE ARGUMENT
BENAIAH, the son of Jehoida, the commander of King Solomon's army, was summoned to the Palace and ordered to go to Gaza with a message for the Ethiopian travelers.
"Get ready and come with me," said Benaiah to Ibna Hakim, "for the heart of the king is burned as with fire with his love for you. Peradventure he will find out for himself whether you're his own son or his brother, for your appearance is no different that his."
Ibna Hakim looked at the army commander and stuttered: "I thank God that I found grace with the king without having seen him and he'll bring me back safely to my mother and to my country, Ethiopia."
Benaiah thought he noted a sense of arrogance in both Ibna Hakim and the men in his entourage.
"My lord, this is a small matter and you'll find greater joy and pleasure with the lord the king, " said Benaiah, sarcastically, adding , "And as concerning what you said, 'my mother and my country,' Solomon the king is better than my mother and this our country is better than your country."
Benaiah wasn't finished in his tirade.
"As for your country, we've heard that it's a land of cold and cloud and a country of glare and burning heat and a region of snow and ice. And when the sons of Noah, Shem and Ham and Japhet divided the world among them, they looked on your country with wisdom and saw that it was spacious and broad. It was a land of whirlwind and burning heat and therefore gave it to Canaan, the son of Ham, as a portion for himself and his seed forever.
"But the land that is ours is the Promised Land, which God has given us, according to oath that he swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. A land that yields fruit of every kind in its season without exhausting labor. A land which God keeps watching over continually from one year to the beginning of the next. All this is yours and we're yours and we will be your heirs and you will dwelling our country, for all the seed of David, the lord of my lord, and to you belongs this throne of Israel."
Benaiah's smugness upset Dima, one of Tamrin's company of traders.
"What do mean your country's better than ours?" Dima seemed to spit out the words. "Our country of Ethiopia is better. The climate's good, for it's without burning heat and fire and our water's sweet. We don't do as you do in your country in that you have to dig very deep wells in search of water and we don't have to die from the sun's heat
"Listen, even at noonday we hunt wild buffaloes, gazelle, birds and small animals. And in the winter God takes care of us from one year to the next. And in springtime the people eat what they've trodden down with their feet in Egypt and as for our trees they produce good crops of fruit and the wheat and barley and all our fruits and cattle are good and wonderful."
Dima then realized the argument had taken on a bitter edge and he calmly said, "But there's one thing that you have that's better than ours ..."
"What's that?" asked Benaiah.
"Wisdom and because of it, we've journeyed to you."
"What's better than wisdom?" replied Benaiah. "For wisdom has founded the earth and made strong the heavens and fettered the waves of the sea so that it might not cover the earth. However, rise up and let's go to my lord, for his heart is greatly moved by his love for you, Ibna Hakim, and he's sent me to bring you to him with all the speed possible."
The tension eased.