3 “I will send my messenger,^(A) who will prepare the way before me.^(B) Then suddenly the Lord^(C) you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant,^(D) whom you desire,^(E) will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

² as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

⁴ And so John the Baptist^(C) appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance^(D) for the forgiveness of sins.^{(E) 5} The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

²³ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness,^(A) ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”^[a](B)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way^(A)

3 In those days John the Baptist^(B) came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven^(C) has come near.” ³ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord,^(A) in the spirit and power of Elijah,^(B) to turn the hearts of the parents to their children^(C) and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”^(D)

⁵ “See, I will send the prophet Elijah^(A) to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.^{(B) 6} He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children,^(C) and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike^(D) the land with total destruction.”^(E)

Comfort for the Contrite

¹⁴ And it will be said: