And if you keep these commandments with your family all affliction shall depart from you. Yes, said he, and affliction shall depart from all who walk in these my commandments.

He showed me a great willow, covering plainsThe parable of the willow-tree and mountains, and under the cover of the willow-tree all had come who were called by the name of the Lord.

And there stood an angel of the Lord, glorious and very tall, by the side of the willow, with a great pruning-hook, and he kept cutting branches from the willow, and gave them to the people who were in the shade of the willow, and he gave them little rods about a cubit long.

After they had all received the little sticks the angel put down the pruning-hook, and that tree remained as sound as when I first saw it.

And I wondered in myself saying: How is the tree sound, when so many branches have been cut off? The shepherd said to me: Do not wonder that this tree has remained sound, though so many branches have been cut off; but if you see everything it will be made clear to you what it is.

The angel who had given the sticks to the people asked them back, and as they had received so also they were called to him, and each of them gave back the sticks. And the angel of the Lord took them and looked at them.