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Therefore shake off your great sadness and lay aside your many sorrows, so that the Mighty One may be merciful to you again, and the Most High may give you rest, a respite from your troubles."
25
While I was talking to her, her face suddenly began to shine exceedingly; her countenance flashed like lightning, so that I was too frightened to approach her, and my heart was terrified. While I was wondering what this meant,
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she suddenly uttered a loud and fearful cry, so that the earth shook at the sound.
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When I looked up, the woman was no longer visible to me, but a city was being built, and a place of huge foundations showed itself. I was afraid, and cried with a loud voice and said,
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"Where is the angel Uriel, who came to me at first? For it was he who brought me into this overpowering bewilderment; my end has become corruption, and my prayer a reproach."
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While I was speaking these words, the angel who had come to me at first came to me, and when he saw me
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lying there like a corpse, deprived of my understanding, he grasped my right hand and strengthened me and set me on my feet, and said to me,
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"What is the matter with you? And why are you troubled? And why are your understanding and the thoughts of your mind troubled?"
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I said, "It was because you abandoned me. I did as you directed, and went out into the field, and lo, what I have seen and can still see, I am unable to explain."
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He said to me, "Stand up like a man, and I will instruct you."
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I said, "Speak, my lord; only do not forsake me, so that I may not die before my time.
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For I have seen what I did not know, and I hear what I do not understand
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—or is my mind deceived, and my soul dreaming?
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Now therefore I beg you to give your servant an explanation of this bewildering vision."
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He answered me and said, "Listen to me, and I will teach you, and tell you about the things that you fear; for the Most High has revealed many secrets to you.
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He has seen your righteous conduct, and that you have sorrowed continually for your people and mourned greatly over Zion.
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This therefore is the meaning of the vision.
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The woman who appeared to you a little while ago, whom you saw mourning and whom you began to console
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(you do not now see the form of a woman, but there appeared to you a city being built)
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and who told you about the misfortune of her son—this is the interpretation:
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The woman whom you saw is Zion, which you now behold as a city being built.
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And as for her telling you that she was barren for thirty years, the reason is that there were three thousand years in the world before any offering was offered in it.
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And after three thousand years Solomon built the city, and offered offerings; then it was that the barren woman bore a son.
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And as for her telling you that she brought him up with much care, that was the period of residence in Jerusalem.
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And as for her saying to you, "My son died as he entered his wedding chamber,' and that misfortune had overtaken her, this was the destruction that befell Jerusalem.
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So you saw her likeness, how she mourned for her son, and you began to console her for what had happened.
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For now the Most High, seeing that you are sincerely grieved and profoundly distressed for her, has shown you the brilliance of her glory, and the loveliness of her beauty.
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Therefore I told you to remain in the field where no house had been built,
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for I knew that the Most High would reveal these things to you.
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Therefore I told you to go into the field where there was no foundation of any building,
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because no work of human construction could endure in a place where the city of the Most High was to be revealed.
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"Therefore do not be afraid, and do not let your heart be terrified; but go in and see the splendor or the vastness of the building, as far as it is possible for your eyes to see it,
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and afterward you will hear as much as your ears can hear.
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For you are more blessed than many, and you have been called to be with the Most High as few have been.
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But tomorrow night you shall remain here,
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and the Most High will show you in those dream visions what the Most High will do to those who inhabit the earth in the last days." So I slept that night and the following one, as he had told me.