(Zacharias and Elisabeth’s home.)
EZRA (running in): Elisabeth! Elisabeth! Elisabeth!
ELISABETH (entering): What?
EZRA: It’s Zacharias!
ELISABETH: Zacharias?
EZRA: He was in the temple and the lot—it fell to him.
ELISABETH: Oh!
EZRA: And he went in to burn the incense . . .
ELISABETH: The lot fell to him? Truly?
EZRA: Yes!
(Zacharias enters, leaning on the shoulder of Benjamin. Elisabeth runs to them.)
ELISABETH: Is it true? Did it? Oh my love! Finally after all these years it fell to you. Tell me, Zacharias, tell me all about it.
(Silence.)
ELISABETH : Zacharias . . . Zacharias?
BENJAMIN: Elisabeth, he can’t speak.
EZRA: He can’t hear either.
ELISABETH: Oh mercy. I knew it. It was too much for you!
BENJAMIN: We tried to talk to him, to ask him what happened . . .
ELISABETH: Here, sit here. You must lie down.
BENJAMIN: . . . But he can’t hear what we’re saying.
ELISABETH: Ezra, the blanket! Benjamin, go for your mother, quickly!
BENJAMIN: Elisabeth! He’s not sick. He saw something.
EZRA: He saw the Lord!
BENJAMIN: Or someone like Him. He was in the temple a long time. Some say he saw a vision.
ELISABETH (pausing, suddenly subdued): A vision.
[Music cue: “I’ll Give God Forever — Reprise” underscore , ]
ELISABETH: Oh, my beloved. A vision.
(Zacharias takes Elisabeth’s hand. He gazes deeply into her eyes. He folds the blanket and places it in Elisabeth’s arms as if it were a baby. As he does so, Elisabeth understands and begins to weep.)
ELISABETH: Oh, Zacharias. I know. I know.
BLACKOUT
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