Luke 3:3-20

Moffatt^{(i) 3} and he went into all the Jordan-district preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins — ⁴ as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah, The voice of one who cries in the desert, 'Make the way ready for the Lord, level the paths for him. ⁵ Every valley shall be filled up, every hill and mound laid low, the crooked made straight, the rough roads smooth; ⁶ so shall all flesh see the saving power of God.' ⁷ To the crowds who came out to get baptized by him John said, "You brood of vipers, who told you to flee from the coming Wrath? ⁸ Now, produce fruits that answer to your repentance, instead of beginning to say to yourselves, 'We have a father in Abraham.' I tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁹ The axe is lying all ready at the root of the trees; any tree that is not producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." ¹⁰ The crowds asked him, "Then what are we to do?" ¹¹ He replied, "Let everyone who possesses two shirts share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise." ¹² Taxgatherers also came to get baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what are we to do?" ¹³ He said to them, "Never exact more than your fixed rate." ¹⁴ Soldiers also asked him, "And what are we to do?" He said to them, "Never extort money, never lay a false charge, but be content with your pay." ¹⁵ Now as people's expectations were roused and as everybody thought to himself about John, "Can he be the Christ," ¹⁶ John said to them all, "I baptize you with water, but after me one who is mightier will come, and I am not fit to untie the string of his sandals; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing-fan is in his hand to purge his threshing-floor, to gather the wheat into his granary and burn the straw with fire unquenchable." ¹⁸ Thus with many another appeal he spoke his message to the people. ¹⁹ But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife as well as for all the wickedness that he, Herod, had committed, ²⁰ crowned all by shutting John up in prison.