Now the time was fulfilled for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.

And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had magnified His mercy with her, and they rejoiced with her.

And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the little child, and they tried to call him after the name of his father, Zachariah.

Yet his mother answered and said, No, but he shall be called John.

And they said to her, There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.

And they gestured to his father as to what he would want him to be called.

And asking for a tablet, he wrote, saying, John is his name. And they all marveled.

And his  ¹mouth was opened instantly, and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak, blessing God.

And fear came on all those dwelling around them, and in all the hill country of Judea all these  ¹things were spread about.

And all who heard these things put them in their heart, saying, What then will this little child be? For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.

And Zachariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and accomplished  ¹redemption for His people,

And raised a  ¹horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant,

Even  ¹as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets  ²from of old —

Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,

To accomplish  ¹mercy with our fathers and to  ²remember His holy covenant,

The  ¹oath which He swore to Abraham our father,

To grant us that we, having been delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might  ¹serve Him without fear,

In  ¹holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

And you also, little child, shall be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the  ¹Lord to  ²prepare His ways,

To give knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins,

Because of the merciful compassions of our God, in which the rising  ¹sun will visit us from on high,

To shine upon those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

And the little child grew and became strong in  ¹spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his presentation to Israel.

And now, O Israel, what does Jehovah your God ask of you except that you fear Jehovah your God so that you would walk in all His  ¹ways and  ²love Him and serve Jehovah your God with all your  ³heart and with all your soul;

So that you would keep the commandments of Jehovah and His statutes, which I am commanding you today, for your good.

Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to Jehovah your God, the earth and all that is in it.

But on your fathers Jehovah set His affection to love them and to choose their seed after them, that is, you above all the peoples, as it is this day.

Circumcise then the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stiff-necked any longer;

For it is Jehovah your God who is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who does not regard persons and does not take bribes;

He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and He loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Therefore love the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

You shall fear Jehovah your God; Him shall you serve and to Him shall you hold fast and by His name shall you swear.

He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen.

Your fathers went down into Egypt as seventy souls; and now Jehovah your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

Therefore you shall love Jehovah your God and keep His charge and His statutes and His ordinances and His commandments always.

And realize today that I am speaking not with your sons, who do not know and who have not seen the discipline of Jehovah your God, His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm;

And His signs and works, which He did in the midst of Egypt against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and against all his land;

And what He did to Egypt's forces, to their horses and to their chariots, when He caused the water of the Red Sea to flow over them while they were pursuing you; and Jehovah made them perish to this day;

And what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

And what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up and their households and their tents and all their substance that went with them, from the midst of all Israel.

But it is your eyes that have seen all the great work of Jehovah which He did.

Therefore you shall keep the whole commandment which I am commanding you today so that you may be  ¹strong and that you may go in and possess the land into which you are crossing over to possess,

And so that you may extend your days upon the ground which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.

For the land which you are entering in to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came forth, where you used to sow your seed and  ¹water by foot as in a vegetable garden.

But the land into which you are crossing over to possess is a land of mountains and valleys; by virtue of heaven's rain, it drinks in water.

It is a land which Jehovah your God cares for; always the  ¹eyes of Jehovah your God are upon it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.

And if you are certain to listen to my commandments, which I am commanding you today, to love Jehovah your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

I will give rain for your land in its season, the  ¹early rain and the late rain, so that you may gather your grain and your new wine and your fresh oil.

And I will put grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

Be careful lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them,

And the anger of Jehovah burn against you and He shut up heaven, so that there is no rain and the earth does not yield its produce and you perish quickly from off the good land which Jehovah is giving you.

Therefore you shall  ¹lay these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them on your hand as a sign, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes;

And you shall teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit in your house and when you journey on the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up;

And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates;

That your days may be multiplied, as well as the days of your children, upon the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the days of heaven are above the earth.

For if you are certain to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him,

Jehovah will dispossess all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.

Every place on which the sole of your foot treads will be yours; from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the  ¹farmost sea will be your territory.

No man will be able to stand against you; Jehovah your God will put the dread and fear of you upon all the land on which you tread, as He has spoken to you.

See, I am setting before you today a  ¹blessing and a  ¹curse:

The blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you today;

And the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God and you turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, to go after other gods whom you have not known.

And when Jehovah your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, you shall put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal.

Indeed they are across the Jordan beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who dwell in the Arabah before Gilgal beside the terebinths of Moreh.

For you are about to cross over the Jordan to enter and possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving you; and you will possess it and dwell in it.

Therefore be certain to do all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.