46-55 And Mary said,I’m bursting with God-news;I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.God took one good look at me, and look what happened—I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!What God has done for me will never be forgotten,the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.His mercy flows in wave after waveon those who are in awe before him.He bared his arm and showed his strength,scattered the bluffing braggarts.He knocked tyrants off their high horses,pulled victims out of the mud.The starving poor sat down to a banquet;the callous rich were left out in the cold.He embraced his chosen child, Israel;he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.It’s exactly what he promised,beginning with Abraham and right up to now.
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home.
57-58 When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.
59-60 On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: “No. He is to be called John.”
61-62 “But,” they said, “no one in your family is named that.” They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.
63-64 Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, “His name is to be John.” That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah’s mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!
65-66 A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, “What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this.”