Luke 3:12-28

¹²Some tax collectors came and asked to be baptized ( asked him to baptize them}. They asked him, “Teacher, what shall we (exc) do to please God?”

¹³He said to them, “Do not take from the people any more money than the Roman government tells you to take!”

¹⁴Some soldiers asked him, “What about us? What should we (exc) do to please God?” He said to them, “Do not say to anyone, ‘ If you(sg) do not give me some money, I will hurt you,’ and do not take people to court and falsely accuse them of doing something wrong! And be content with your wages.”

¹⁵People were expecting that the Messiah would come soon. Because of that, many of them wondered about John. Some of them asked him if he was the Messiah.

¹⁶John replied to them all, “No, I am not. I used only water when I baptized you. But the Messiah will soon come! He is far greater than I am. He is so great that I am not worthy to be like his slave and untie his sandals MET like a slave would do! He will put his Holy Spirit within MTY you to truly change your lives, and he will judge others of you and punish you in the fire MET in hell.

¹⁷He is like a man MET who wants to clear away the grain on the ground where it has been threshed {they have threshed it}. That man uses a huge fork to throw the grain into the air to separate the wheat from the chaff MET, and then he cleans up the threshing area. Similarly, God will separate righteous people from the evil people, like a man who gathers the wheat into his storage area, and then he will burn those who are like chaff with a fire ◄that will never be put out/that will burn forever►.”

¹⁸John kept telling people many things to urge them to turn to God, as he told them the good message from God.

¹⁹He also rebuked the ruler of the district, Herod Antipas. He rebuked him for marrying Herodias, his brother's wife, while his brother was still alive, and for doing many other evil things.

²⁰But Herod had his soldiers put John in prison. That was another evil thing he did.

²¹But before John was put in prison, when many people were being baptized {when he was baptizing many people}, after Jesus was baptized {he baptized Jesus} and Jesus was praying, the sky opened.

²²Then the Holy Spirit, resembling a dove, descended upon Jesus. And God SYN/EUP spoke to Jesus from heaven, saying, “You (sg) are my Son, whom I love dearly. I am very pleased with you!”

²³When Jesus began his work for God, he was about thirty years old. It was { People} thought that he was the son of Joseph. Joseph was the son of Heli.

²⁴Heli was the son of Matthat. Matthat was the son of Levi. Levi was the son of Melchi. Melchi was the son of Jannai. Jannai was the son of Joseph.

²⁵Joseph was the son of Mattathias. Mattathias was the son of Amos. Amos was the son of Nahum. Nahum was the son of Esli. Esli was the son of Naggai.

²⁶Naggai was the son of Maath. Maath was the son of Mattathias. Mattathias was the son of Semein. Semein was the son of Josech. Josech was the son of Joda.

²⁷Joda was the son of Joanan. Joanan was the son of Rhesa. Rhesa was the son of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the son of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the son of Neri.

²⁸Neri was the son of Melchi. Melchi was the son of Addi. Addi was the son of Cosam. Cosam was the son of Elmadam. Elmadam was the son of Er.