Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by  John the Baptist.

         But John tried to stop Him by saying, "I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me?"

                  Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.

His [the Messiah] winnowing fork is in His hand and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

"I [John the Baptist] baptize you with water for repentance. 

          But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

And do not think you [to the Pharisees and Sadducees] can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'

          I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

                    The ax is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

When John the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming where he was baptizing, he said, You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

People went out to John the Baptist from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.

         Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

John the Baptist's clothes were made out of camel's hair and he had a leather belt around his waist.

         His food was locust and wild honey.

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

          This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him."

So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

          But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in the place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.

                  So fulfilling what was said through the prophets, that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its surrounding area who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.