1Chapter.
2In those days there was a man in Jerusalem, Joachim by name, of the tribe of Judah.
3He was the shepherd of his own sheep, fearing the Lord in integrity and singleness of heart.
4He had no other care than that of his herds, from the produce of which he supplied with food all that feared God, offering double gifts in the fear of God to all who laboured in doctrine, and who ministered unto Him.
5Therefore his lambs, and his sheep, and his wool, and all things whatsoever he possessed, he used to divide into three portions: one he gave to the orphans, the widows, the strangers, and the poor; the second to those that worshipped God; and the third he kept for himself and all his house.
6And as he did so, the Lord multiplied to him his herds, so that there was no man like him in the people of Israel.
7This now he began to do when he was fifteen years old.
8And at the age of twenty he took to wife Anna, the daughter of Achar, of his own tribe, that is, of the tribe of Judah, of the family of David.
9And though they had lived together for twenty years, he had by her neither sons nor daughters.