Luke 1:28-69

²⁸The angel greeted her and said,“ ◄The Lord/God► is with you (sg) and you will be greatly blessed { has decided to greatly bless you}!”

²⁹But Mary was very confused when she heard that. She wondered what the angel meant by these words.

³⁰Then the angel said to her, “Mary, God is very pleased with you (sg), so do not be afraid.

³¹You will become pregnant and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus.

³²He will become great. He will be called { People will call him} ◄the Son of God/the man who is also God►. God, the Lord, will make him a king MTY as his ancestor King David was.

³³He will be the King of the Jews, the descendants MTY of your ancestor Jacob, forever. He will rule as king forever!”

³⁴Then Mary said to the angel, “I am a virgin, so how can I have a baby?”

³⁵The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come to you; the power of God MTY/EUP will overshadow you and enable you to become pregnant. So the child you will bear will be completely set apart {give himself completely} to obey God, and he will be called { people will say that he is} ◄the Son of God/the man who is also God►.

³⁶I also need to tell you something else. Your cousin Elizabeth is very old, and it was thought { people said} that she could not bear any children. But she has been pregnant EUP for almost six months, and will bear a son!

³⁷You should not be surprised at that, because God can do everything!”

³⁸Then Mary said, “All right, I want to serve ◄the Lord/God►, so may what you (sg) have said about me come true!” Then the angel left her.

³⁹Very soon after that, Mary got ready and went quickly to a town in the highlands of Judea district where Zechariah lived.

⁴⁰She entered his house and greeted his wife Elizabeth.

⁴¹As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary greet her, the baby moved inside Elizabeth's womb. The Holy Spirit took complete control of Elizabeth,

⁴²and she said loudly to Mary, “ God has blessed you more than he has blessed any other woman, and he has blessed the child you will bear!

⁴³◄I am not worthy that God would allow you to visit me!/Why is God allowing you to visit me?► RHQ You will be the mother of my Lord!

⁴⁴I realize this because as soon as I heard you greet me, the baby inside my womb moved because he was so happy that you had come.

⁴⁵God is pleased with you because you believed that what ◄the Lord/God► told you would come true.”

⁴⁶Then Mary praised God by saying/singing: “O, how I SYN praise ◄the Lord/God►!

⁴⁷I am happy because God is the one who saves me.

⁴⁸I was only his lowly servant girl, but he did not forget me. So from now on, everyone will say that God was pleased with me,

⁴⁹because they will hear about the things that God MTY, the mighty one, has done for me. He MTY is awesome!

⁵⁰He acts mercifully toward all those who respect him.

⁵¹He shows people that he MTY is very powerful. He scatters those who think proudly.

⁵²He does not let mighty kings rule MTY anymore, but he honors people who are oppressed (OR, humble).

⁵³He gives good things to eat to those who are hungry, but he sends away the rich people without giving them anything.

⁵⁴He promised to Abraham and all our other ancestors who descended from him that he would act mercifully toward them forever. And now he has remembered what he promised. So he has helped me and all the other people of MTY Israel who serve him.”

⁵⁶Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months. Then she returned to her home.

⁵⁷When it was time for Elizabeth to give birth to her child, she bore a son.

⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard how ◄the Lord/God► had greatly blessed her by enabling her to bear a child, so they were happy along with Elizabeth.

⁵⁹Seven days later they gathered together for the ceremony for circumcising the baby to show that he belonged to God. They wanted to give the baby the same name as his father, Zechariah..

⁶⁰But his mother said, “No, his name will not be Zechariah. His name will be John!”

⁶¹So they said to her, “ John is not the name of any of your (dl) relatives, so you(dl) should not give him that name!”

⁶²Then they made motions with their hands to Zechariah, for him to indicate what name he wanted to be given {to give} to his son.

⁶³So he signaled that they should give him a tablet to write on. When they gave him one, he wrote on it, “His name is John.” All those who were there were surprised!

⁶⁴Immediately Zechariah was able to speak again MTY, and he praised God.

⁶⁵All their neighbors were amazed/awestruck! They told other people who lived all over the highlands of Judea about what had happened.

⁶⁶Everyone who heard about it kept thinking about it. They were saying, “We wonder what will this child do for God when he grows up RHQ!” They wondered that because from what had happened they were sure that God would be helping that child SYN in a powerful way.

⁶⁷After Zechariah's son was born, Zechariah was completely directed by the Holy Spirit {the Holy Spirit completely directed Zechariah} as he spoke these words that came from God:

⁶⁸“Praise the Lord, the God whom we(inc) people of Israel worship, because he has come to set us, his people, free from our enemies.

⁶⁹He is sending us someone who will powerfully MTY save us, someone who is descended from MTY King David, who served God well.