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

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

⁵⁹It happened on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him Zacharias, after the name of the 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 worked redemption for his people;

⁶⁹Has 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,

⁷³The oath which he spoke 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.

⁷⁶And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, For you will go before the face of the Lord to make ready his ways,

⁷⁷To give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,

⁷⁸Because of the tender mercy of our God, Whereby the dawn from on high will visit us,

⁷⁹To shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; To guide our feet into the way of peace."

⁸⁰The child grew, and grew strong in spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel.