Shepherd of Hermas — Similitude 9, Chapter 9
What Must Be Cut Away Before They Fit
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Similitude 9.9.1Then he came to inspect the white, round stones and said to me, “What shall we do about these stones?” I said, “What do I know, sir?” “Can you think of nothing about them, then?”
Similitude 9.9.2I said, “Sir, I do not possess this skill. I am no stonecutter, nor can I understand.” He said, “Do you not see that they are very round? If I wish to make them square, a great deal must be cut from them. Yet some of them must necessarily be placed in the building.”
Similitude 9.9.3I said, “If it is necessary, sir, why trouble yourself? Why not choose those you wish for the building and fit them into it?” He selected the larger, gleaming ones and cut them. The virgins carried them and fitted them into the outer parts of the building.
Similitude 9.9.4The others that remained were taken and laid in the plain from which they had been brought. They were not rejected, for he said, “The tower still needs a little more building. The master of the tower wishes all these stones to be fitted into the building, because they are very gleaming.”
Similitude 9.9.5Twelve women were called, very beautiful in appearance, dressed in black, girded, with their shoulders bare and their hair loose. These women appeared wild to me. The shepherd commanded them to carry away the stones rejected from the building and take them to the mountains from which they had been brought.
Similitude 9.9.6Cheerfully they carried away all the stones and put them where they had been taken from. After all the stones had been removed, and no stone lay around the tower any longer, the shepherd said to me, “Let us walk around the tower and see whether there is any defect in it.” I walked around it with him.
Similitude 9.9.7When the shepherd saw that the tower was beautiful in its construction, he was very cheerful. For the tower had been built in such a way that, when I saw it, I longed for its building. It was built as though from a single stone, without even one joint in it. The stone appeared to have been cut from the rock, for it seemed to me to be one single stone.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.