| 3 | |||
1 |
"I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty. |
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2 |
But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. |
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3 |
He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, |
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4 |
and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years. |
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| 1 | |||
57 |
When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. |
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58 |
Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. |
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59 |
On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, |
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60 |
but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." |
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| 61 | They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." |
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| 62 | Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. | ||
| 63 | He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." | ||
| 64 | Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. | ||
| 65 | All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. | ||
| 66 | Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him. | ||
| 67 | His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: | ||
| 68 | “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. | ||
| 69 | He has raised up a horn[a] of salvation for us in the house of his servant David | ||
| 70 | (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), | ||
| 71 | salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— | ||
| 72 | to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, | ||
| 73 | the oath he swore to our father Abraham: | ||
| 74 | to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear | ||
| 75 | in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. | ||
| 76 | And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, | ||
| 77 | to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, | ||
| 78 | because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven | ||
| 79 | to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” | ||
| 80 | And the child grew and became strong in spirit[b]; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel. | ||