Lilah fol­lows Sarah and Zip­po­rah, peo­ple of his­tor­i­cal verac­i­ty, in this tril­o­gy. With Lilah, Marek Hal­ter turns a doc­u­ment­ed sit­u­a­tion— seiz­ing Jerusalem, rebuild­ing the Tem­ple and iter­a­tion of the trib­al unique­ness of the Israelites — and cre­ates a young woman, Lilah, square­ly in it. The chal­lenges that Lilah faced still face us today. 

Focus­ing Lilah’s chal­lenges are Ezra, her schol­ar­ly lov­ing broth­er, and his best friend, a Per­sian named Anti­noes, Lilah’s beloved. They live in exile in Hebron under the King of Kings, Artax­erx­es II, who pro­claims that Ezra, a descen­dant of Aaron, must bring ​“order to Judaea and Jerusalem accord­ing to the Law of your God.” 

Con­vinced that her broth­er, a true zealot, must ful­fill the Jews’ trib­al des­tiny, Lilah has choic­es fraught with phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al pain. Lend­ing inten­si­ty to the sto­ry, Hal­ter details the splen­dor and opu­lence of the court, a coun­ter­point to the despair of the Jews and the depth of the lovers’ passion. 

It is a fit­ting con­clu­sion to the trilogy.