59 And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were wanting to name him ⌊after⌋m his father Zechariah. 60 And his mother answered and* said, “No, but he will be named John.” 61 And they said to her, “There is no one of your relatives who is called by this name.” 62 So they made signs to his father asking what he wanted him to be named, 63 and he asked for a writing tablet and* wrote, saying, “John is his name.” And they were all astonished. 64 And his mouth and his tongue were opened immediately, and he began to speak,* praising God. 65 And fear came on all those who lived near them, and in all the hill country of Judea all these events were discussed. 66 And all those who heard kept these things* in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be? For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him!”

The Praise and Prophecy of Zechariah

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

68 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

because he has visited to help and ⌊has redeemed⌋n his people,

69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David,

70 just as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times—

71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all those who hate us,

72 to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant,

73 the oath that he swore to Abraham our father,

to grant us 74 that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,

could serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness

before him all our days.

76 And so you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,

for you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways,

77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people

by the forgiveness of their sins,

78 because of the merciful compassiono of our God

by which the dawn will visit to help us from on high,

79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to direct our feet into the way of peace.”

80 And the child kept growing and becoming strong in spirit, and was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.