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Tobias desperately entrusts all his money and his life to an evil band of cutthroats in an attempt to make a doomed voyage to the Holy Land when he finds that the regular ship has left. And Ahasuerus, who has committed himself to the others, has found himself through them on a pilgrimage even without faith, and is granted the blessing he longs for—"the land of death, the holy land." The Burning Thirst. As he lies dying at last, ancient Ahasuerus accepts Christ as his brother, and yearns for the stupendous, inaccessible essence that lies behind the theologies and rituals and beliefs.
"Beyond all the sacred clutter, the holy thing itself must exist," he cries. "That I believe, of that I am certain." But he still defies the being he calls god with a contemptuous small g. God, says Ahasuerus, separates man from the divine, from the sacred spring. "To god I do not kneel—no, and I never will. But I would gladly lie down at the spring to drink from it—to quench my thirst, my burning thirst for what I cannot conceive of, but which I know exists. And perhaps that is what I'm doing now. Now that the battle is over at last and I may die. Now that at last I have won peace."
How has Ahasuerus won his peace? By kneeling, Lagerkvist seems to be saying, not to worship but to drink.