Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁵ Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is he who has the God of [special revelation to] Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God,^(A)

⁶ Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, Who keeps truth and is faithful forever,

⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets free the prisoners,

⁸ The Lord opens the eyes of the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright in heart and in right standing with Him).^(B)

⁹ The Lord protects and preserves the strangers and temporary residents, He upholds the fatherless and the widow and sets them upright, but the way of the wicked He makes crooked (turns upside down and brings to ruin).

¹⁰ The Lord shall reign forever, even Your God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)^(C)

2 Hannah prayed, and said, My heart exults and triumphs in the Lord; my horn (my strength) is lifted up in the Lord. My mouth is no longer silent, for it is opened wide over my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.

² There is none holy like the Lord, there is none besides You; there is no Rock like our God.

³ Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance go forth from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.

⁴ The bows of the mighty are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength.

⁵ Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children languishes and is forlorn.

⁶ The Lord slays and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.

⁷ The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and He lifts up.

⁸ He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts up the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with nobles and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He has set the world upon them.

3 In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—

² In the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God [^[a]concerning the attainment through Christ of salvation in the kingdom of God] came to John son of Zachariah in the wilderness (desert).

³ And he went into all the country round about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance (^[b]of hearty amending of their ways, with abhorrence of past wrongdoing) unto the forgiveness of sin.

⁴ As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, The voice of one crying in the wilderness [shouting in the desert]: Prepare the way of the Lord, make His beaten paths straight.

⁵ Every valley and ravine shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be leveled; and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough roads shall be made smooth;

⁶ And all mankind shall see (behold and ^[c]understand and at last acknowledge) the salvation of God (the deliverance from eternal death ^[d]decreed by God).^(A)

⁷ So he said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, You offspring of vipers! Who ^[e]secretly warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁸ Bear fruits that are deserving and consistent with [your] repentance [that is, ^[f]conduct worthy of a heart changed, a heart abhorring sin]. And do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up descendants for Abraham.

⁹ Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees, so that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

¹⁰ And the multitudes asked him, Then what shall we do?

¹¹ And he replied to them, He who has two tunics (undergarments), let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do it the same way.

¹² Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, Teacher, what shall we do?

¹³ And he said to them, Exact and collect no more than the fixed amount appointed you.

¹⁴ Those serving as soldiers also asked him, And we, what shall we do? And he replied to them, Never demand or enforce ^[g]by terrifying people or by accusing wrongfully, and always be satisfied with your rations (supplies) and with your allowance (wages).

¹⁵ As the people were in suspense and waiting expectantly, and everybody reasoned and questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether he perhaps might be the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

¹⁶ John answered them all by saying, I baptize you with water; but He Who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of Whose sandals I am not fit to unfasten. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

¹⁷ His winnowing shovel (fork) is in His hand to thoroughly clear and cleanse His [threshing] floor and to gather the wheat and store it in His granary, but the chaff He will burn with fire that cannot be extinguished.

¹⁸ So with many other [various] appeals and admonitions he preached the good news (the Gospel) to the people.