Chapter 2.
And it happened that, in the time of the feast,
among those who were offering incense to the Lord, Joachim stood
getting ready his gifts in the sight of the Lord. And the priest,
Ruben by name, coming to him, said: It is not lawful for thee to
stand among those who are doing sacrifice to God, because God has not
blessed thee so as to give thee seed in Israel. Being therefore
put to shame in the sight of the people, he retired from the temple of
the Lord weeping, and did not return to his house, but went to his
flocks, taking with him his shepherds into the mountains to a far
country, so that for five months his wife Anna could hear no tidings of
him. And she prayed with tears, saying: O Lord, most mighty
God of Israel, why hast Thou, seeing that already Thou hast not given
me children, taken from me my husband also? Behold, now five
months that I have not seen my husband; and I know not where he is
tarrying;1619
| 1619 Another
reading is: Where he has died—reading mortuus for
moratus. |
nor, if I knew
him to be dead, could I bury him. And while she wept excessively,
she entered into the
court of His
house; and she fell on her face in
prayer, and poured out her
supplications before the
Lord. After
this, rising from her prayer, and lifting her
eyes to
God, she saw a
sparrow’s
nest in a laurel
tree,
1620
and uttered her voice to the
Lord with groaning, and said:
Lord
God Almighty, who hast given
offspring to every creature, to
beasts
wild and tame, to
serpents, and
birds, and fishes, and they all
rejoice
over their young ones, Thou hast shut out me alone from the
gift of Thy
benignity. For Thou, O
God, knowest my
heart, that from the
beginning of my
married life I have vowed that, if Thou, O
God,
shouldst give me son or
daughter, I would offer them to Thee in Thy
holy
temple. And while she was thus speaking, suddenly an
angel
of the
Lord appeared before her, saying: Be not afraid, Anna, for
there is
seed for thee in the
decree of
God; and all generations even
to the end shall wonder at that which shall be
born of thee. And
when he had thus spoken, he
vanished out of her sight. But she,
in
fear and dread because she had seen such a sight, and heard such
words, at length went into her
bed-
chamber, and threw herself on the
bed as if dead. And for a whole day and
night she remained in
great trembling and in prayer. And after these things she called
to her her
servant, and said to her: Dost thou see me
deceived in
my widowhood and in great perplexity, and hast thou been
unwilling to
come in to me? Then she, with a slight murmur, thus answered and
said: If God hath shut up thy womb, and hath taken away thy
husband from thee, what can I do for thee? And when Anna heard
this, she lifted up her voice, and wept aloud.
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