Luke 3:3-20

Goodspeed^{(i) 3} And he went all through the Jordan Valley preaching repentance and baptism in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins, ⁴ as the book of the sermons of the prophet Isaiah says, "Hark! Someone is shouting in the desert, Get the Lord's way ready! Make his paths straight. ⁵ Every hollow must be filled up, And every mountain and hill leveled. What is crooked is to be made straight, And the rough roads are to be made smooth, ⁶ And all mankind is to see how God can save!" ⁷ So he would say to the crowds that came out there to be baptized by him, "You brood of snakes! Who warned you to fly from the wrath that is coming? ⁸ Then produce fruit that will be consistent with your professed repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our forefather,' for I tell you, God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones! ⁹ But the axe is already lying at the roots of the trees. Any tree that fails to produce good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire." ¹⁰ The crowds would ask him, "Then what ought we to do?" ¹¹ And he answered, "The man who has two shirts must share with the man who has none, and the man who has food must do the same." ¹² Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Master, what ought we to do?" ¹³ He said to them, "Do not collect any more than you are authorized to." ¹⁴ And soldiers would ask him, "And what ought we to do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money or make false charges against people, but be satisfied with your pay." ¹⁵ As all this aroused people's expectations, and they were all wondering in their hearts whether John was the Christ, ¹⁶ John said to them all, "I am only baptizing you in water, but someone is coming who is stronger than I am, whose shoes I am not fit to untie. He will baptize you in the holy Spirit and in fire. ¹⁷ He has his winnowing fork in his hand, to clean up his threshing-floor, and store his wheat in his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with inextinguishable fire." ¹⁸ So with many varied exhortations he would preach the good news to the people, ¹⁹ but Herod the governor, whom he condemned because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and all the wicked things Herod had done, ²⁰ crowned them all by putting John in prison.