Continuing the story - Children of the City

It took a while for the dust to settle and for Judah to realise how he and his friend had been so miraculously delivered from having become an offering to the god/ gods of the Ninevites. But where were they? And who had been busy caring for him and his companion? Bowls of stew had been placed nearby, and he could hear a chatter of children’s voices.

Every now and again they were aware of falling masonry, but they were protected by an overhanging shelf where these homeless children seemed to have found a refuge. Nobody seemed to be in pursuit of them now.

Judah and his friend were content to be fed and cared for by these friends of the ruins of Nineveh but little by little they regained their confidence and began to explore their surroundings, taking care to keep out of sight. But one evening, Judah was arrested by hearing a conversation that was in clear Hebrew, his own mother tongue.

Signalling to his friend, they crept closer but the summons must have been to call the lads indoors and the refugees knew they needed to scurry back to their own bolt hole, but not for too long.

Who were these speakers of Hebrew who were surviving within the great city of Nineveh?  Themselves still surviving through the kindness of these refugee lads, Judah and his friend returned each day to their hidden hiding place. But had they been discovered? How was it that a generous meal had been left for them each morning?

No longer having to live as scavengers, the mystery was unwrapped. First Judah and his friend
were taken to meet the lady of the house, now no longer a slave, but honoured as a beloved wife and trying to get accustomed to conversing in the language of the Ninevites.