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And Bat-El said, "I said none of the things the king recited in my name. Aaron had a sister, Miriam, but no brothers. This Moshe did not exist. There was not, and there never shall be, a second covenant between myself and any of the inhabitants of Earth. All those things the king read to the people were lies that redound to the benefit of the priesthood.

"Therefore I shall raise up the king of the South, and Josiah king of Judah shall die at his hands. Then I shall raise up the king of the East, and there shall be much much going to and fro of armies, and the sons of Josiah shall shift their allegiance between their two enemies until the sceptre departs from the throne of Judah forever.

"Nevertheless the King shall be redeemed if he gathers all the people in the Temple Courtyard and repents of this figment of a Second Covenant. He may even say he was decived by the priests, for that, at least, is true."

And Hilkiah the High Priest was terrified, and said, "Lord, be merciful! If I give this commandmandment to the king and he says nay he will have me put to death, and if he says yea the other priests will put me to death."

And Elyon said, "Then your choice is clear, Hilkiah son of Hoshaiah. You can die at the hands of wicked men, yet be redeemed in the eyes of your God, and your son Azariah shall take your place, or you can be accursed and die at the hands of your God, and you shall be the last High Priest in Judah."

Then Hilkiah feared to take the Table of the Covenant from the Holiest Place to display to the people, as was the procedure on every Day of Atonement from the days of Levi when Jashen delivered the relic to him, for Hilkiah knew God would strike him dead if he touched the stone, and his fellow priests would haul his body out of the Holiest Place by a rope tied about his loins as a precaution against the Lord's displeasure.

Instead he appeared before the people empty handed, and told them God himself had decreed the Table of the Covenant must remain forever in the Holiest Place, and none may see it, save the High Priest, lest it become an object of idolatry, and none may touch it, not even the High Priest.

In the days following the Atonement the brother of Hilkiah named Lael was seen in the cities and countryside of Judah bearing the Golden Gift as a sign of his commission to preserve a remnant from the kingdom.