12. Even the tax collectors came to John. They wanted to be baptized. They said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?”
13. He told them, “Don’t take more taxes from people than you have been ordered to collect.”
14. The soldiers asked him, “What about us? What should we do?” He said to them, “Don’t use force or lies to make people give you money. Be happy with the pay you get.”
15. Everyone was hoping for the Messiah to come, and they wondered about John. They thought, “Maybe he is the Messiah.”
16. John’s answer to this was, “I baptize you in water, but there is someone coming later who is able to do more than I can. I am not good enough to be the slave who unties his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
17. He will come ready to clean the grain. He will separate the good grain from the straw, and he will put the good part into his barn. Then he will burn the useless part with a fire that cannot be stopped.”
18. John said many other things like this to encourage the people to change, and he told them the Good News.
19. John criticized Herod the ruler for what he had done with Herodias, the wife of Herod’s brother, as well as for all the other bad things he had done.