Luke 1:49-72

⁴⁹For he who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name.

⁵⁰His mercy is for generations and generations on those who fear him.

⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

⁵²He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly.

⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty.

⁵⁴He has given help to Israel, his servant, that he might remember mercy,

⁵⁵as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.”

⁵⁶Miriam stayed with her about three months, and then returned to her house.

⁵⁷Now the time that Elisheva should give birth was fulfilled, and she gave birth to a son.

⁵⁸Her neighbours and her relatives heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy towards her, and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him Zechariah, after the name of his father.

⁶⁰His mother answered, “Not so; but he will be called Yochanan.”

⁶¹They said to her, “There is no one amongst your relatives who is called by this name.”

⁶²They made signs to his father, what he would have him called.

⁶³He asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is Yochanan.” They all marvelled.

⁶⁴His mouth was opened immediately and his tongue freed, and he spoke, blessing God.

⁶⁵Fear came on all who lived around them, and all these sayings were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea.

⁶⁶All who heard them laid them up in their heart, saying, “What then will this child be?” The hand of the Lord was with him.

⁶⁷His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,

⁶⁸“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people;

⁶⁹and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David

⁷⁰(as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been from of old),

⁷¹salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;

⁷²to show mercy towards our fathers, to remember his holy covenant,