Parables 83

¹ And, behold, after a little while I see an array of many men coming, and in the midst a man of such lofty stature that he overtopped the tower. (HER) ² And the six men who superintended the building walked with him on the right hand and on the left, and all they that worked at the building were with him, and many other glorious attendants around him. And the virgins that watched the tower ran up and kissed him, and they began to walk by his side round the tower. (HER) ³ And that man inspected the building so carefully, that he felt each single stone; and he held a rod in his hand and struck each single stone that was built in. (HER) ⁴ And when he smote, some of the stones became black as soot, others mildewed, others cracked, others broke off short, others became neither white nor black, others rough and not fitting in with the other stones, and others with many spots; these were the varied aspects of the stones which were found unsound for the building. (HER) ⁵ So he ordered all these to be removed from the tower, and to be placed by the side of the tower, and other stones to be brought and put into their place. (HER) ⁶ And the builders asked him from what mountain he desired stones to be brought and put into their place. And he would not have them brought from the mountains, but ordered them to be brought from a certain plain that was nigh at hand. (HER) ⁷ And the plain was dug, and stones were found there bright and square, but some of them too were round. And all the stones which there were anywhere in that plain were brought every one of them, and were carried through the gate by the virgins. (HER) ⁸ And the square stones were hewed, and set in the place of those which had been removed; but the round ones were not placed in the building, because they were too hard to be shaped, and to work on them was slow. So they were placed by the side of the tower, as though they were intended to be shaped and placed in the building; for they were very bright. (HER)