¹⁰ This is the one of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who shall make ready Your way before You.^(A)

¹³ But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zachariah, because your petition ^[a]was heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you must call his name John [God is favorable].

¹⁴ And you shall have joy and exultant delight, and many will rejoice over his birth,

¹⁵ For he will be great and distinguished in the sight of the Lord. And he must drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit even ^[b]in and from his mother’s womb.^(A)

¹⁶ And he will turn back and cause to return many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God,

¹⁷ And he will [himself] go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn back the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient and incredulous and unpersuadable to the wisdom of the upright [which is ^[c]the knowledge and holy love of the will of God]—in order to make ready for the Lord a people [perfectly] prepared [in spirit, ^[d]adjusted and disposed and placed in the right moral state].^(B)

⁷⁶ And you, little one, shall be called a prophet of the Most High; for you shall go on before the face of the Lord to make ready His ways,^(A)