17 In preparation for their work your sons must walk in many thorny paths.
18 Fierce trials and temptations they will meet, like other men; their loads will not be light, and they will weary be, and faint.
19 And they will know the pangs of hunger and of thirst; and without cause they will be mocked, imprisoned, scourged.
20 To many countries they will go, and at the feet of many masters they will sit, for they must learn like other men.
21 But we have said enough. The blessings of the Three and of the Seven, who stand before the throne, will surely rest upon you evermore.
22 Thus closed the lessons of Elihu and Salome. Three years they taught their pupils in the sacred grove, and if their lessons all were written in a book, lo, it would be a mighty book; of what they said we have the sum.
23 Now, Mary, Joseph and Elizabeth with Jesus and his harbinger, set forth upon their homeward way. They went not by Jerusalem, for Archelaus reigned.
24 They journeyed by the Bitter Sea, and when they reached Engedi hills they rested in the home of Joshua, a near of kin; and here Elizabeth and John abode.
25 But Joseph, Mary and their son went by the Jordan way, and after certain days they reached their home in Nazareth.