Shepherd of Hermas 9

1The vision I saw, brothers, was like this.

2After fasting many times and pleading with the Lord to make known to me the revelation he had promised to show me through that aged woman, on that very night the aged woman appeared to me and said: “Since you are so needy and so eager to know everything, come to the field where you stay, and about the fifth hour I will appear to you and show you what you must see.”

3I asked her, saying, “Lady, to what place in the field?” “Wherever you wish,” she says. I chose a good, secluded spot. But before I spoke to her and named the place, she says to me, “I will come there where you wish.”

4So I went, brothers, into the field, and I counted the hours, and I came to the place where I had directed her to come; and I see an ivory couch set there, and upon the couch there lay a linen pillow, and on top a spread-out towel of fine linen.

5Seeing these things set there and no one in the place, I was astonished, and a tremor, as it were, seized me, and my hair stood on end; and a shudder, as it were, came upon me, since I was alone. Then, coming to myself and remembering the glory of God, and taking courage, I knelt and again confessed my sins to the Lord, as before.

6And she came with six young men—whom I had seen also before—and she stood by me and listened while I was praying and confessing my sins to the Lord. And touching me she says, “Hermas, stop asking everything about your sins; ask also about righteousness, so that you may receive some share of it for your household.”

7And she raised me by the hand and leads me to the couch, and she says to the young men, “Go and build.”

8And after the young men withdrew and we were alone, she says to me, “Sit here.” I say to her, “Lady, let the elders sit first.” “What I tell you,” she says, “sit.”

9So when I wanted to sit on the right side, she did not permit me, but motioned to me with her hand that I should sit on the left side. So as I reasoned and was grieved that she had not allowed me to sit on the right side, she says to me, “Are you grieved, Hermas? The place on the right side belongs to others—those who have already pleased God and suffered for the sake of the Name; but you lack many things to sit with them. But as you remain in your simplicity, remain, and you will sit with them, as will all who do their works and endure what they also endured.”