24
The crowds of the city had been assembled for this most pitiful spectacle and they were eagerly waiting for daybreak.
25
But the Jews, at their last gasp—since the time had run out—stretched their hands toward heaven and with most tearful supplication and mournful dirges implored the supreme God to help them again at once.
26
The rays of the sun were not yet shed abroad, and while the king was receiving his Friends, Hermon arrived and invited him to come out, indicating that what the king desired was ready for action.
27
But he, on receiving the report and being struck by the unusual invitation to come out—since he had been completely overcome by incomprehension—inquired what the matter was for which this had been so zealously completed for him.
28
This was the act of God who rules over all things, for he had implanted in the king's mind a forgetfulness of the things he had previously devised.
29
Then Hermon and all the king's Friends pointed out that the animals and the armed forces were ready, "O king, according to your eager purpose."
30
But at these words he was filled with an overpowering wrath, because by the providence of God his whole mind had been deranged concerning these matters; and with a threatening look he said,
31
"If your parents or children were present, I would have prepared them to be a rich feast for the savage animals instead of the Jews, who give me no ground for complaint and have exhibited to an extraordinary degree a full and firm loyalty to my ancestors.
32
In fact you would have been deprived of life instead of these, if it were not for an affection arising from our nurture in common and your usefulness."
33
So Hermon suffered an unexpected and dangerous threat, and his eyes wavered and his face fell.
34
The king's Friends one by one sullenly slipped away and dismissed the assembled people to their own occupations.