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for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.
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He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
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Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
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And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
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“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
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The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
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Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.
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In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!
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Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
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for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.
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He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful
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On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah,
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but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
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They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
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He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.”
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Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.
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“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
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He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
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salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—
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in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
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to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
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And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.
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The Birth of Jesus
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
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Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
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On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.