Mark 6:18-20

The Voice

^17-18 Herod had imprisoned John in the days before Jesus began His teaching. John had preached to Herod that he should not have married his own brother’s wife, Herodias, for so it is written in the Hebrew Scriptures: “It is not lawful for one to marry his brother’s wife.”^[a]

¹⁹ Herodias held a grudge against John and would have had him killed, but she couldn’t. ²⁰ Herod feared John as a holy and righteous man and did what he could to protect him. John taught hard truths,^[b] and yet Herod found he usually liked hearing them.

So Herod had put John in prison instead of executing him;