Malachi 3:1-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Coming Messenger
3 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.(A) 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ soap;(B) 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.[a](C) 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 3.3 Or right offerings to the Lord
Luke 1:68-79
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on[a] his people and redeemed them.(A)
69 He has raised up a mighty savior[b] for us
in the house of his child David,(B)
70 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,(C)
71 that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
72 Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors
and has remembered his holy covenant,(D)
73 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us 74 that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,(E) 75 in holiness and righteousness
in his presence all our days.(F)
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,(G)
77 to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.(H)
78 Because of the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break[c] upon[d] us,
79 to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”(I)
Luke 3:1-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Proclamation of John the Baptist
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,(A) 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.(B) 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.(C)
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”(D)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.