should not they talk things over? He would like to summon one, to hold out a friendly hand. The other soldier grows angry.
First Soldier. You shall not do that. They are our enemies, and it is our duty to hate them.
Second Soldier. Why should I hate them if my heart knows no reason for hatred?
First Soldier. They began the war; they were the aggressors.
Second Soldier. Yes, that is what we say in Jerusalem. In Babylon, perchance, they use the same words of us. If we could talk things over with them, we might get some light on the question.… Whom do we serve by compassing their death?
First Soldier. We serve God and the king our master.
Second Soldier. But God said, and it is written, Thou shalt not kill.
First Soldier. It is likewise written, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Second Soldier (sighs). Many things are written. Who can understand them all?
He continues to bewail himself aloud. The first soldier urges him to be silent.
Second Soldier. How can a man help questioning himself, how can he be other than uneasy, at such an hour? Do I know where I am and how long I have still to stand on guard? … How can I fail, while I live, to question the meaning of life? … Maybe death is already within me; perchance the questioner is no longer life, but death.
First Soldier. You are only tormenting yourself about nothings.
Second Soldier. God has given us a heart precisely that it may torment us.
Jeremiah and Baruch appear on the ramparts. Jeremiah leans over the parapet and gazes down. All that he is now looking at, these fires, these myriad tents, this first night of the siege, are things with which he is already familiar from his visions. There is not a star in heaven which he has not seen in this place. He can no longer
