“12 A troublemaker and a villain,
   who goes about with a corrupt mouth,
13 who winks maliciously with his eye,
   signals with his feet
   and motions with his fingers,
14 who plots evil with deceit in his heart—
   he always stirs up conflict.”
~ Proverbs 6:12-14
Benaiah liked this part the best.
The horse auction.
Not so much the buyers.
The horse dealer, Gabriel’s father, would round up a group of the worst case’s of horse flesh he had to appease these buyers. He made a little money but mostly this part of the sale was to get rid of the old, aging, injured or otherwise animals with a defect out of his herd. Animals he picked up along the way through different deals or had gotten into bad shape along the way and so were proved to be inferior.
The desert is no place to be weak.
The horse dealer would gather the horses and have the handler rile them up as he led them into the bidding area creating quite the animated scene.
The buyers would get animated right along with the horses and when the dealer started the bidding it was a free for all.
Or so it seemed.
It took Benaiah watching very closely a few times to catch how this whole thing worked and came alive.
His first few horse sales were whirlwinds! He didn’t know who was bidding, who was catching or who really won the animal in the end.
Now though being a bit accustomed to it he had caught up to speed and would watch as the whole auction came alive. He would watch the bidders closely.
Some standing stock still and only signalling that they were in on the bid with just a move of a finger. Or the one buyer who would offer the lowest price every time for every horse. There was nothing subtle about his tactic. Funny thing was he really had the money and would be happy leaving with one or two extra’s that no one else bid on or missed seeing in the lane.
Then there were the middle buyers, savvy enough, but not a ton of experience but because they were business men they were getting horses to sell for everything from pulling carts to a riding horse for an up an comer in the community who could now afford a horse.
But those were not true jobs for the spirit of the horse.
Menial jobs, decoration and in the end probably food.
Every horse would perform any job with the utmost nobility as that is the way of the horse.
Horses are meant for battle.
Proud, fearless and beautifully defiant they fly into the fray!
Then there were buyers like The Hittite and other professionals.
As the living auction came to a close Benaiah found that with all the movement he wound up standing close to The Hittite and when the last lone bidder argued and argued on the final bid price of the final horse Benaiah and The Hittite caught one another’s eye as they both were giving the situation the same wry grin and shaking their heads in disbelief at all involved…
The last buyer trying his hardest to not give in and lose probably his last coin, the dealer who would not give in on principle, monetary or otherwise and the horse who looked as used up as an old empty wine skin.
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