Luke 1:16-25

¹⁶He will persuade many people in Israel to turn away from their sins and please the Lord their God.

¹⁷As God's Spirit enables him to preach powerfully as the prophet Elijah did, he will precede the Messiah. He will cause parents SYN to act peacefully toward their children again. He will cause many people who do not obey God to hear and obey the wise things that righteous people tell them. He will do this in order to help many people to be ready when the Lord comes.”

¹⁸Then Zechariah said to the angel, “I am very old, and my wife is also so old that she cannot bear a child. So ◄I cannot believe that what you (sg) said will happen!/how can I believe that what you (sg) said will happen?► RHQ”

¹⁹Then the angel said to him, “I am God's chief angel, Gabriel! I do what God tells me, because I constantly am in God's presence! I was sent { He sent me} to tell you (sg) something good that is going to happen to you.

²⁰What I have told you will certainly happen at the time God decides, but you did not believe what I told you. So now God will make you will be unable to talk until the day your son is born”!

²¹While Zechariah and the angel were talking, the people in the courtyard were waiting for Zechariah to come out. They wondered, “Why is he staying in the Temple for such a long time?”

²²When Zechariah came out, he was not able to speak to the people. Because he could not talk, he made motions with his hands to try to convey what had happened. Then they realized that he had seen ◄a vision from God/something that God showed him► while he was in the Temple.

²³When Zechariah's time to work as a priest in the Temple was finished, he left Jerusalem and returned to his home.

²⁴Some time later his wife Elizabeth became pregnant EUP. She did not leave their house for five months, because she knew that people would laugh at her if she told them that she was pregnant.

²⁵But she thought, “God has enabled me to become pregnant. He has pitied me and I will no longer be ashamed because I have no children!”