Give the King Your Justice
zOf Solomon.
1 Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
2 aMay he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
8 fMay he have dominion gfrom sea to sea,
and hfrom the River1 to the iends of the earth!
9 May desert tribes bow down before him,
and his enemies jlick the dust!
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute;
may the kkings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!
11 May all kings fall down before him,
all nations serve him!
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1 bIn the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, cPontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and dHerod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother ePhilip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of fAnnas and gCaiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a hbaptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
i“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,1
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
6 and jall flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
