The Year of the Lord’s Favor
1 uThe Spirit of the Lord God is vupon me,
because the Lord has wanointed me
to bring xgood news to the poor;1
he has sent me to ybind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and zthe opening of the prison to those who are bound;2
2 to proclaim athe year of the Lord’s favor,
and the bday of vengeance of our God;
to ccomfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the doil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the eplanting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.3
4 They shall build up the fancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the gruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
5 hStrangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
6 but iyou shall be called the priests of the Lord;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the jwealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
7 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have keverlasting joy.
8 For I the Lord love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;4
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting lcovenant with them.
9 Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the mrobe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.
The Birth of John the Baptist
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the veighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And wfear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
Zechariah’s Prophecy
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and xprophesied, saying,
68 y“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for zhe has visited and aredeemed his people
69 and has braised up a chorn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke dby the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be esaved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show fthe mercy promised to our fathers
and to gremember his holy covenant,
73 hthe oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and irighteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will jgo before the Lord kto prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the lforgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the msunrise shall visit us1 from on high
79 nto give olight to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the pway of peace.”
80 qAnd the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
