Luke 3:2–10

²in the time of the high priest Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³And he went into all the surrounding region of the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight!

⁵Every valley will be filled,

and every mountain and hill will be leveled,

and the crooked will become straight,

and the rough road will become^* smooth,

⁶and all flesh will see the salvation of God.’ ”^b

⁷Therefore he was saying to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “Offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁹And even now the ax is positioned at the root of the trees; therefore every tree not producing good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰And the crowds were asking him, saying, “What then should we do?”