26. But what did you go out to see? A navi? Ken, I say to you, and one more than a navi.
27. This one is he about whom it has been written, HINENI SHOLEIACH MALAKHI (Behold, I send my messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your derech in front of You [Mal 3:1]).
28. I say to you, among those born of isha there is no one greater than Yochanan, yet he who is least in the Malchut Hashem is greater than he.
29. (And when kol haAm [all the People] and the mochesim heard this, they acknowledged the Tzidkat Hashem [Righteousness of G-d], having been submitted to the tevilah of teshuva of Yochanan.
30. But the Perushim and the Baalei HaTorah rejected the tachlis [purpose] of Hashem for their lives, refusing the tevilah of teshuva of Yochanan.)
31. Therefore, to what will I compare the people of hador hazeh (this generation) and what are they like?
32. They are like yeladim sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another; and they say, We played the chalil (flute) for you and you did not dance; we sang a kina (lament, funeral dirge) and you did not weep.
33. For Yochanan of the tevilah of teshuva has come not eating lechem nor drinking yayin, and you say, He has a shed (demon)!
34. The Ben HaAdam [Moshiach, DANIEL 7:13-14] has come eating and drinking, and you say, Hinei, a man who is a zolel (glutton) and a shikkor (drunkard), a re'a (friend) of mochesim and chote'im.
35. Yet chochmah is justified by all of her yeladim.