[ 2:4] Who is [there] of you that saw this house in her former glory? And how do you now look upon it, as it were nothing before your eyes?

Though then your beginning should be small, yet your end should be unspeakably great.

Fear not, Jacob, [and you] Israel few in number; I have helped you, says your God, He that redeems you, O Israel.

The little one shall become thousands, and the least a great nation; I the Lord will gather them in [due] time.

You saw until a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, and it struck the image upon its feet of iron and clay, and utterly reduced them to powder.

Then once for all the clay, the iron, the brass, the silver, and the gold were ground into powder, and became as chaff from the summer threshing floor. And the violence of the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. And the stone which had struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

For who has despised the small days? Surely they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet of tin in the hand of Zerubbabel: these are the seven eyes that look upon all the earth.

Another parable He set before them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,

which indeed is smaller [than] all the seeds; but whenever it is grown, it is greater [than] the garden vegetables and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."

They went on and wept as they cast their seeds; but they shall surely come with exaltation, bringing their sheaves [with them].

Behold, I bring them from the north, and I will gather them from the end of the earth to the feast of the Passover: and [the people] shall beget a great multitude, and they shall return there.

They went forth with weeping, and I will bring them back with consolation, causing them to lodge by the channels of waters in a straight way, and they shall not err in it: for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.