Truth-teller!
(_At a sign from_ Judith, Haggith _re-enters the house_.)
OZIAS. Your face is turned from me, because of the youth. Yet you came
out to see the governor of the city, and the governor could do no other
than I have done.
JUDITH (_looking at him_). Ozias, you have shown me your heart.
OZIAS. Yea!
JUDITH. And in the moment when the youth came you asked of me my
counsel.
OZIAS. Yea!
JUDITH. Hear me now, for the words you have spoken before the people
this day are not right.
OZIAS. What words?
JUDITH. This promise that you have uttered to deliver the city to our
enemies, unless within five days the Lord turn to help. Who are you that
seek to stand instead of God among the children of men?
OZIAS. Stand instead of God!
JUDITH. Who are you that have tempted God this day? For you cannot find
the depth of the heart of man,--how then shall you search out God or
comprehend his purpose? Brother, provoke not the Lord our God to anger.
For if he will not help us within these five days, he has power to
defend us when he will, even every day. Do not bind the counsels of God.
For God is not as man that he may be threatened, neither as the son of
man that he should be wavering.
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