6 | Luke–Acts
Luke–Acts | 6
throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking a bout all
these things. Everyone who h
eard this wondered a bout it, asking,
“What then is this c hild going to be?” For the L
ord’s hand was with
him.
His father Zechariah was f illed with the Holy Spirit and proph
esied:
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us —
to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most
High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for
him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
And the child grew and became s trong in spirit; and he l ived in
the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should
be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the f irst census that
took place while Quir inius was gover nor of Syr ia.) And everyone
went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee
to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to
1:66–2:4
1:66–2:4