LAYERS of cloud masked the noonday sun in the open sky. It had been a week since that routing defeat at those borders of Gilead.
It seemed the Ammonites were giving the men of Gilead some respite to mourn their fallen fighters and bury their dead. For in the past week there hadn’t been any form of attack from the invaders.
But while the soldiers of Gilead enjoyed that brief rest from battle, Elar the commander of their army seemed to be preparing a launch against an enemy.
Yet that enemy wasn’t the Ammonite monsters he fought just a week ago. This was a different kind of foe. And it was one who demanded no spear or sword.
It was his brother Jephthah.
Mumbles rumbled through the guest chamber of Gilead’s homestead. But the old man wasn’t the one hosting that gathering. Neither was he aware of that emergency congress.
But that congress was made up of nine souls. Five legitimate sons of the old man Gilead. Along with Jephthah’s captains… Baddok, Simone, Gilkar and Sham.
It was Elar who convened that meeting.
The silent congress went on for hours. And just while the men were rounding up their talks, a person stormed into that chamber. It was like the arrival of a storm. It was Jephthah.
Jephthah crashed into that meeting place in a fury that could burn down a house. He looked at the seated assembly as his boiling eyes roasted his captains in their seats.
Indeed, the subject of the silent talks had been Jephthah. Yet the warrior cared less about who gathered that assembly or whatever that host talked about.
His burning anger was for the four he trusted as friends. The ones he’d known as fighters for his own cause, now sitting to reason with an enemy.
But then the brave warrior had set out earlier that morning to meet with those same captains sitting here... his reliable four.
Those four, they were more than captains of the units of his regiment. They were his right-hand men. They were to him like blood brothers. Like brothers he never had.
So the five had agreed to meet that morning at the shallow deltas of Jordan to strategize about laying ambush on Xarxus’s army. But there at the river bank Jephthah waited for hours on end. But no one came.
Afterwards the resilient commander went back to town to search for the men in their houses. He was curious to know why none of them showed up as agreed.
But when Jephthah got to each one’s house, he was told each had left for his place. That it was even since daybreak.
Jephthah was surprised. He wondered why his friends would forget that his house wasn’t an appropriate place, even if they wanted their meeting point changed.
Again he wondered if Baddok and the rest remembered this at all. That they couldn’t be talking about their own strategies in a house where his envious brother was.
But Jephthah had the least idea that Baddok and co were even with that same brother. Discussing nothing else but him.
Now the revelation of this truth. It was going to tear him up in tatters.
So now, as the warrior stared at the seated group in the meet room, reality dawned on him like the break of day. For a thick wisp of betrayal wafted across his nostrils.
That moment, all words simply escaped from the mind. He couldn’t find any words to say to everything now.
So, just as Jephthah stood there dazed and dumb, he saw his little brother jump to his feet and yell out a rude cry.
‘What insolence?! Is this how you treat your commander?’
And those proud words from a kid brother irked him even more.
Yes, Jephthah had agreed to submit to Elar’s authority in the army already. But never at home where he was still the firstborn son.
That instant he burst into a hysterical laughter.
‘Ha-ha! Commander?! Commander?!’
That big laugh hit Elar like a hard stick. He felt ridiculed. He felt small.
Instantly he turned to his other brothers. They were just sitting still and watching.
‘Brothers, you see that! You see what comes off a bastard who doesn’t know his place! Did you hear what he said?’
Then he turned back to Jephthah. ‘What could we have expected anyway? What good can come from you, son of a common harlot?!
‘Don’t you know? If you mean anything to the house of Gilead, it is to be exploited, then thrown out! I told you already that dung will return to dung!’
Jephthah stood there dazed and conquered. His limbs almost gave way beneath him.
Elar aimed a finger at the young man. ‘Look at him! He lacks the sense of brotherhood! How then can he prove the honour of a soldier? Huh, tell me! How?’
He turned to his brothers again. ‘Do you still want to share the lot of Gilead with this bastard, this son of a harlot?
‘Or d’ you think he won’t be take all the rights and properties to himself? A bastard son as he is?!’
He glanced at Jephthah’s captains.
‘Now you folks say you no longer want an illegitimate as your warlord…
‘So with what you see now, do you think this bastard should be the heir of my father and lead you his noble warriors?
‘D’ you think that’s in any way acceptable?!’
Those words that Elar spoke were daggers that sliced Jephthah’s heart and battered it all over. They drew out blood thicker than water and sliced off flesh and soul.
For sadly, it was a brother who stabbed.
Copyright © April 2022 by Kayode & Tola Olla
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