And she spoke, but not in anger. She said: “Listen, my daughter, and hearken and keep my word in remembrance: the man who but now passed by, like the shadow of a bird flying between the sun and the earth, shall prevail against the Caesars and the empire of the Caesars. He shall wrestle with the crownèd bull of Chaldea, and the man-headed lion of Egypt, and He shall overcome them; and He shall rule the world.
“But this land that now He walks shall come to naught; and Jerusalem, which sits proudly upon the hill, shall drift away in smoke upon the wind of desolation.”
When she spoke thus, my laughter turned to stillness and I was quiet. Then I said: “Who is this man, and of what country and tribe does He come? And how shall He conquer the great kings and the empires of the great kings?”
And she answered: “He is one born here in this land, but we have conceived Him in our longing from the beginning of years. He is of all tribes and yet of none. He shall conquer by the word of His mouth and by the flame of His spirit.”
Then suddenly she rose and stood up like a pinnacle of rock; and she said: “May the angel of the Lord forgive me for pronouncing this word also: He shall be slain, and His youth shall be shrouded, and He shall be laid in silence beside the tongueless heart of the earth. And the maidens of Judea shall weep for Him.”
Then she lifted her hand skyward and spoke again, and she said: “But He shall be slain only in the body.
“In the spirit He shall rise and go forth leading His host from this land where the sun is born, to the land where the sun is slain at eventide.
“And His name shall be first among men.”