The Assyrian capital of Nineveh sat on the eastern bank of the Tigris during the eighth century b.c. Dirt streets smelled of slaughtered livestock and river mud. A blind Israelite exile sat inside his stone house and worried over silver left far away. He held a written contract. This document represented 10 talents of silver left with a man named Gabael in the region of Media. The blind man needed his son to retrieve the currency.
Media lay hundreds of miles east. The journey required walking from Nineveh into the Zagros Mountains. Merchants called this path the Great Khorasan Road. The route cut through steep mountain passes and dropped down to the city of Rages. Rages functioned as a major trade hub in the Iranian plateau. A traveler needed a guide who knew the violent terrain and the local dialects. The son walked into the market to find a hired man.
He returned with a fellow Israelite who claimed to know the roads. The blind father interrogated the stranger. The father demanded his tribal lineage and his knowledge of the path to Rages. The guide provided satisfactory answers and agreed to a wage of one drachma a day. The father handed over the two-part contract. This sealed document served as the only proof of ownership for the 10 talents of silver.
A man trusts his wealth to a split contract and his life to a hired stranger.
The guide and the son packed rations for the long walk. A dog followed them out the city gates. They turned east toward the mountains. The blind father remained in Nineveh. His wife wept at the door. She cursed the silver and mourned the departure of her only child. The travelers disappeared down the dirt road toward the Tigris crossings.