Only The Harlot Shall Live is a tragedy in three acts that retells the Old Testament story of the fall of Jericho from a humanistic perspective. The action is set during the last twenty-four hours of the doomed city, from the morning of the sixth day of the Israelite siege until the morning of the seventh day, when the attacking host will bring down the fabled walls. All the scenes are set inside the city, with emphasis on the experiences, fears and yearnings of the Canaanite population that is trapped and destined to die.
Only two characters from the biblical Book of Joshua are brought to life in this play: the turncoat prostitute Rahab, who betrays her neighbors and the city of Jericho out of fanatical devotion to the god of the Israelites, and Joshua himself, whose voice is heard beyond the walls when he proclaims, "Only the harlot Rahab shall live!" just as the city is about to be put to the sword. Otherwise, the play focuses on characters of the author's own invention, principally Hayyuma, an illiterate former prostitute, and her thirteen-year-old daughter Tahuru. They work together in the shop of Arhalbu the Babylonian in an impoverished quarter of Jericho, walking across the city every day to fetch water in jars borne on their heads. In the same tiny square stands the brothel where Hayyuma used to work, having been sold into prostitution at the age of ten. Much of the plot turns on Hayyuma's desperate attempts to save Tahuru's life, first by spiriting her out of the besieged city, then by seeking refuge for her with her former colleague Rahab, whose household is the only one not marked for destruction. In Act One, Hayyuma turns to the kindly priest Baaluma, once her lover and now a favorite of the Priest of El, appealing to him for help by suggesting that he might be Tahuru's father, but she is scarcely assured by his half-hearted, vacillating response. Hayyuma's efforts to save her daughter, as well as her determination to keep her sworn word at the potential cost of her life, constitute not only the central action of the play, but also a kind of allegory of our abiding need to validate human existence despite the desertion of the divine and the threat of ultimate dissolution.
For her part, Tahuru is a remarkable individual, an unschooled genius bursting with naive optimism and desire to live life to the fullest. As the play opens, she stands on the threshold of womanhood, struggling to cope with changes to her body in the midst of the terrors of the siege and the sound of the enemy's horns outside the walls. As she confides in her companion Irishtu, she is in love with Hayin, the Amorite slave of Arhalbu, but must conceal this from her overly protective mother. Tahuru emerges as the most important character of the play during the contemplative second act, when she learns life lessons imparted by three tales recounted to her in turn by Irishtu, Arhalbu and Hayin. With this new awareness, she recognizes her inner strength and accomplishes a great deed in the name of love, defending her mother from the brutal assault of the drunken reprobate Tunnanu, the brother of Rahab. In an extended conversation with her mother, she reveals her yearnings to transcend the monotony of her existence and the threat of impending slaughter, but not if it means abandoning those she loves.
Although Jericho is destined to fall because of its supposed "abominations," it eventually becomes plain that the true abomination of the play lies in the potential loss to humanity of such remarkable beings as Tahuru and her lover, the youthful poet Hayin. These are the true implications of genocide: whenever and wherever it is decreed that all members of a population must die, then such wise and creative individuals are bound to be among the victims. Thus, the passionate kiss of the lovers at the end of the second act becomes the ultimate affirmation of life, an expression of defiance against the schemes of gods and men alike.