The angel said to them, "Do not be frightened, for I bring you good news of a great joy that is to be felt by all the people,

He is like a man who was building a house, who dug deep and laid his foundation upon the rock, and when there was a flood the torrent burst upon that house and could not shake it, because it was well built.

They are like children sitting about in the bazaar and calling out to one another, " 'We have played the flute for you, and you would not dance! We have wailed and you would not weep!'

And some fell on good soil, and grew up and yielded a hundred fold!" As he said this he called out, "Let him who has ears to hear with, listen!"

But his elder son was in the field. When he came in and approached the house, he heard music and dancing,

"What man among you, if he has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, will say to him when he comes in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down at the table,'

People went on eating, drinking, marrying, and being married up to the very day that Noah got into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

A man who is on the roof of his house that day, with his goods in the house, must not go down to get them, and a man in the field, too, must not turn back.