Dedication to Theophilus

1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that ^(A)have been accomplished among us, ^2 (B)just as those who ^(C)from the beginning were ^(D)eyewitnesses and ^(E)ministers of ^(F)the word ^(G)have delivered them to us, ³ it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write ^(H)an orderly account for you, ^(I)most excellent ^(J)Theophilus, ⁴ that you may have ^(K)certainty concerning the things ^(L)you have been taught.

Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

^5 (M)In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah,^{[a] (N)}of ^(O)the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶ And they were both ^(P)righteous before God, walking ^(Q)blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. ⁷ But they had no child, because ^(R)Elizabeth was barren, and ^(S)both were advanced in years.

⁸ Now ^(T)while he was serving as priest before God when ^(U)his division was on duty, ⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot ^(V)to enter ^(W)the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people ^(X)were praying ^(Y)outside at the hour of incense. ¹¹ And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of ^(Z)the altar of incense. ¹² And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and ^(AA)fear fell upon him. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for ^(AB)your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and ^(AC)you shall call his name John. ¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will ^(AD)rejoice at his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be ^(AE)great before the Lord. And ^(AF)he must not drink wine or strong ^(AG)drink, and ^(AH)he will be ^(AI)filled with the Holy Spirit, ^(AJ)even from his mother's womb. ¹⁶ And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, ¹⁷ and ^(AK)he will go before him ^(AL)in the spirit and power of Elijah, ^(AM)to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and ^(AN)the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, ^(AO)to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

¹⁸ And Zechariah said to the angel, ^(AP)“How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” ¹⁹ And the angel answered him, “I am ^(AQ)Gabriel. ^(AR)I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. ²⁰ And behold, ^(AS)you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” ²¹ And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in ^(AT)the temple. ²² And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in ^(AU)the temple. And ^(AV)he kept making signs to them and remained mute. ²³ And ^(AW)when his time of ^(AX)service was ended, he went to his home.

²⁴ After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, ²⁵ “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, ^(AY)to take away my reproach among people.”

Birth of Jesus Foretold

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel ^(AZ)Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named ^(BA)Nazareth, ^27 (BB)to a virgin betrothed^[b] to a man whose name was Joseph, ^(BC)of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, ^(BD)O favored one, ^(BE)the Lord is with you!”^{[c] 29} But ^(BF)she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for ^(BG)you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, ^(BH)you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and ^(BI)you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of ^(BJ)the Most High. And the Lord God ^(BK)will give to him the throne of ^(BL)his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob ^(BM)forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”^[d]

³⁵ And the angel answered her, ^(BN)“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of ^(BO)the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born^[e] will be called ^(BP)holy—^(BQ)the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her ^(BR)who was called barren. ³⁷ For ^(BS)nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant^[f] of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And ^(BT)the angel departed from her.

Mary Visits Elizabeth

³⁹ In those days Mary arose and went with haste into ^(BU)the hill country, to a town in Judah, ⁴⁰ and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth ^(BV)was filled with the Holy Spirit, ⁴² and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ^(BW)“Blessed are you among women, and ^(BX)blessed is ^(BY)the fruit of your womb! ⁴³ And why is this granted to me that the mother of ^(BZ)my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ And ^(CA)blessed is she who believed that there would be^[g] a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat

⁴⁶ And Mary said,

⁵⁶ And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

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 ^(CY)had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. ⁵⁹ And ^(CZ)on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, ⁶⁰ but his mother answered, “No; ^(DA)he shall be called John.” ⁶¹ And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” ⁶² And ^(DB)they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. ⁶³ And he asked for ^(DC)a writing tablet and wrote, ^(DD)“His name is John.” And they all wondered. ^64 (DE)And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue ^(DF)loosed, and he spoke, ^(DG)blessing God. ⁶⁵ And ^(DH)fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all ^(DI)the hill country of Judea, ⁶⁶ and all who heard them ^(DJ)laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For ^(DK)the hand of the Lord was with him.

Zechariah's Prophecy

⁶⁷ And his father Zechariah ^(DL)was filled with the Holy Spirit and ^(DM)prophesied, saying,

^80 (EQ)And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was ^(ER)in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

A Chosen People

7 “When the ^(A)Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, ^(B)the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations ^(C)more numerous and mightier than you, ^2 (D)and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must ^(E)devote them to complete destruction.^{[a] (F)}You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ^3 (G)You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. ^(H)Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you ^(I)quickly. ⁵ But thus shall you deal with them: ^(J)you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their ^(K)pillars and chop down their ^(L)Asherim and ^(M)burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For ^(N)you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be ^(O)a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but ^(P)it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping ^(Q)the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, ^(R)the faithful God ^(S)who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰ and ^(T)repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. ^(U)He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. ^11 (V)You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

^12 (W)“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you ^(X)the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. ¹³ He will ^(Y)love you, bless you, and multiply you. ^(Z)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples. ^(AA)There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil ^(AB)diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ And ^(AC)you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. ^(AD)Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^(AE)a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ ^18 (AF)you shall not be afraid of them but you shall ^(AG)remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹ the great trials that your eyes saw, ^(AH)the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover, ^(AI)the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is ^(AJ)in your midst, ^(AK)a great and awesome God. ^22 (AL)The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,^[b] lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. ^23 (AM)But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(AN)he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall ^(AO)make their name perish from under heaven. ^(AP)No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ The carved images of their gods ^(AQ)you shall burn with fire. You ^(AR)shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ^(AS)ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction^[c] like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, ^(AT)for it is devoted to destruction.

He Will Not Forsake His Saints

^[a] Of David.