Luke 1:55-75

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁶¹They said to her, “There is no one among 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 John.” They all marveled.

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 Zacharias 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 toward our fathers, to remember his holy covenant,

⁷³the oath which he swore to Abraham our father,

⁷⁴to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him without fear,

⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.