- 1:57Now the time was fulfilled for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
- 1:58And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had magnified His mercy with her, and they rejoiced with her.
- 1:59And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the little child, and they tried to call him after the name of his father, Zachariah.
- 1:60Yet his mother answered and said, No, but he shall be called John.
- 1:61And they said to her, There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.
- 1:62And they gestured to his father as to what he would want him to be called.
- 1:63And asking for a tablet, he wrote, saying, John is his name. And they all marveled.
- 1:64And his mouth was opened instantly, and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak, blessing God.
- 1:65And fear came on all those dwelling around them, and in all the hill country of Judea all these things were spread about.
- 1:66And all who heard these things put them in their heart, saying, What then will this little child be? For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.
- 1:67And Zachariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
- 1:68Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and accomplished redemption for His people,
- 1:69And raised a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant,
- 1:70Even as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets from of old-
- 1:71Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,
- 1:72To accomplish mercy with our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,
- 1:73The oath which He swore to Abraham our father,
- 1:74To grant us that we, having been delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear,
- 1:75In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
- 1:76And you also, little child, shall be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways,
- 1:77To give knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins,
- 1:78Because of the merciful compassions of our God, in which the rising sun will visit us from on high,
- 1:79To shine upon those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
- 1:80And the little child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his presentation to Israel.